Yaounde: victims of Nkoldon house destruction protest
Some inhabitants of the Nkolondon neighborhood in Yaounde I have rallied in front of the Mayor’s office to protest the mass destruction of their houses five months ago by the city council.
They say they want the government to provide them with support considering many of them have been left homeless due to the destruction of their houses.
On May 25th 2022, the city council destroyed several houses at the Nkolondon neighborhood in the Yaoundé and according to the victims they have written several petitions to the council but this has not yielded any positive result.One of them, Erithe Chimengne, expressed her dissatisfaction saying they have legal documents showing claims and ownership of the land:
”I have put in a lot of efforts in building my house. I even dug a well 18m deep. I have four children and none of them are schooling now. I came back one day to realize that tractors had come and crushed all the houses in the locality.”
She further explains victims of the demolition even wrote to the Senior Divisional Officer and the minister of housin but have not gotten any feedback as all the authorities sent them back to the Mayor.
Alissa Machia, another victim, says she still remembers the day she lost her house:
“I came back from the farm that day and realized my house had been destroyed. Since then I have been psychologically down and haven’t recovered from the shock. My kids have been abandoned. Just eating is problem for me ane we have been sleeping on the streets,”she lamented.
After the manifestion, they have been asked to write another complaint and submit to the council but they however have said they will not leave the Mayor’s office until they are given lasting solutions to their problem.
