Hundreds of families homeless following slum demolition.

03 Sep, 2006

Over 600 families have been left homeless after hired youths backed by police pulled down the informal settlement where they were living, the state-owned newspaper The Nation reports. Residents of Komora slum on the south eastern Doonholm estate were woken at dawn on 2 September by the demolition squads and given ten minutes to evacuate their homes before the bulldozers moved in, destroying corrugated iron sheeting and furniture. The action followed an earlier written notice from the land owner ordering residents to vacate the spot or face eviction. The area is allegedly slated for private development. Komora dated from the 1960s, when it grew up to house construction workers employed by a company that then owned the land. Displaced residents have appealed to the government to provide them with temporary shelter as they have nowhere else to go.