A fire in a camp for displaced Yazidis in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq on Friday burned 350 tents, while 25 people were injured, officials told AFP.

Eight wounded people were taken to hospital after suffering from shortness of breath after the fire broke out in Shariya camp in Dohuk governorate, the region bordering Turkey, which includes more than 12,000 displaced Yazidis living in a total of 4,000 tents, according to camp director Sardar Muhammad.

The fire was completely extinguished, especially after using helicopters and dozens of fire engines, according to the information official of the Department of Migration and Displacement and Relief for the Displaced in Dohuk Governorate, Karwan Atrushi, adding that a committee will be formed to uncover the circumstances of the accident and compensate those affected.

Yazidi civil activist Saeed Khodida stated that charitable organizations have begun to provide urgent aid to those whose tents were burned down, while work is supposed to erect new ones as of Saturday, according to officials.

The small Kurdish-speaking Yazidi community, which practices a monotheistic mystical religion that does not rely on any scriptures, has been persecuted for centuries by extremists who consider them "devil worshippers".

The Yazidis, holed up in their stronghold of Sinjar in the mountainous north of Iraq, believe in special beliefs and worship seven angels, the most important of which is Malak Tawus ("The Peacock Angel"). Their number reached 550,000 in Iraq in 2014, with a total of 1.5 million worldwide.

More than six years after the Islamic State occupied their areas in 2014, 360,000 Yazidis are still displaced in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and about 100,000 people have left the country.

According to the Kurdish authorities, ISIS has kidnapped more than 6,400 Yazidis, and only half of them managed to escape or survive. The fate of the others remains unknown.

These violations committed by the Islamic State constitute genocide, according to the United Nations.

As a result of the deterioration of the electrical infrastructure, fires are almost a daily scene in Iraq, where the Ministry of Interior recorded between January and March 7,000 fires, the most deadly of which broke out in Ibn Al-Khatib Hospital for Covid-19 patients in the capital, Baghdad, in April, killing 82 people.