"Tunde Agando was paddling his way back to Makoko floating settlement in his canoe on a January afternoon, after taking his mother to the market, when he saw an amphibious excavator tearing down his family's home. Before he could get close, the large home on stilts where he and 15 others lived in Lagos, Nigeria, had been brought down with all the possessions inside it clothes, furniture, his brothers' carpentry tools with which they built wooden canoes, and his plugged-in phone lost to the water."
"Agando is one of the thousands of Makoko residents forcibly evicted from their homes by the Lagos State government, in a demolition operation that began in late December and only ended when the Lagos State House of Assembly ordered it be halted earlier this month. The government said the demolitions were being carried out due to the community's proximity to an electric power line, and that people needed to move back by 100 metres (109 yards). But authorities have gone beyond the 100-metre mark."
Lagos State government carried out demolitions in Makoko floating settlement from late December until a halt ordered by the Lagos State House of Assembly in early February, evicting thousands. Authorities cited proximity to an electric power line and a required 100-metre setback, while NGOs say demolitions reached 250–500 metres into the settlement. Excavators destroyed stilt houses, workshops and businesses, with police firing tear gas at resisting residents. The operations rendered thousands homeless, caused more than 12 deaths including two infants, and left survivors salvaging belongings from canoes and sheltering under sheds and pastors’ homes.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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