Evacuation from Airport Land has been ordered by Elive Ntui, meaning that Many inhabitants of Douala are facing imminent homelessness.
Inhabitants of New Town Airport 1 and New Town Airport 4 in the economic capital, Douala, are frustrated and angry after the government gave them a short-term order to vacate their homes ahead of planned demolitions.
The Commander of the Douala International Airport, Elive Ntui, in a release, asked residents to liberate their houses latest on October 4 ahead of phase 3 of the demolition of illegal settlements on the airport’s land.
“The Commander of the Douala International Airport invites the inhabitants of New Town Airport 1 and New Town Airport 4, whose houses have been traced for demolition, to liberate the premises by Wednesday, October 4, 2023,” the release read.
The measure will send many, who have been living in the area for decades, to the street.
One of the people whose homes the demolitions will affect said, “This is not fair.”
“We have been living here for over 20 years, and now the government wants to kick us out of our homes without any notice or compensation.”
Tussi Chanceline said she and her family have nowhere else to go.
“The government is heartless. They don’t care about our lives,” she lamented. “Where do I start from? I have been living here for years now, and it is my own house I built.”
Other residents who will be affected by the planned demolitions expressed similar frustrations.
“I don’t know where I’m going to go with my family,” said another inhabitant. “We have nowhere else to go and no money to restart life with. This is unfair.”
The victims say the airport authorities have not given them ample time to make any meaningful transfer arrangements and have not disclosed any plan to compensate or resettle them.
“The government should reconsider its decision to demolish Airport 1 and New Town Airport without proper relocation or compensation for the inhabitants,” Mbacham Paul Giresse, an inhabitant of Bonamoussadi, Douala, told MMI.
“The government should also develop a comprehensive plan to relocate the inhabitants and compensate them for their losses.”
It is very unlikely that they will be compensated for losing their homes, as the government has hardly taken any measures in the past to relocate or compensate people who have been evacuated from state lands.
In 2020, the government demolished over 100 houses in the same quarter without any prior notice or compensation to the inhabitants.
A similar event happened in May last year in Bali, Douala, after government bulldozers stormed the neighbourhood and began demolishing structures that were said to have been built on state land.
Residents said they never received any notification from the government prior to the demolition.
Impromptu demolitions of private buildings by government institutions are common, not only in Douala but across the country.
A similar fate befell residents of Buea Town and Soppo, in Buea, in March this year after the Municipal Council brought down several houses and structures without giving their owners ample time to prepare.
Many said they were never compensated.
The sudden demolitions have usually taken Cameroonians aback in development, as many, who have spent millions to build their fortunes, have had to start all over again.
This is not the first time that authorities have carried out such demolitions at the detriment of the homes and livelihoods of citizens. In January, MMI reported that several residents of Bessengue, a neighbourhood in the Littoral Region of Cameroon, specifically in Douala, were rendered homeless due to a demolition exercise conducted in the area.
The Douala I council carried out the demolition exercise on January 5, 2023, under the supervision of the 1st Assistant Senior Divisional Officer of Wouri.
