Displacing hundreds without a permit.. Who is behind the demolition of an entire neighborhood in Abidjan? | news

Last week, bulldozers and excavators destroyed homes and shops in a neighborhood of the Kumasi municipality in Abidjan, following instructions from a man named Jacques Bro, who appeared in a video clip waving a document that he claims gives him a license to demolish about 34 hectares of the area, while members of the security forces accompanied him, according to what Radio France Internationale reported.

A week after the demolition, all that was left of the neighborhood was piles of rubble, broken metal roofs, and smashed furniture, and residents found themselves in a state of destitution. A resident and father of five children, who began sleeping on the floor of a mosque after his house was demolished overnight, recounted: “It was a great shock to us. We were surprised. We did not know what to do, and we were not notified of anything. When I returned to take the television, the security personnel prevented me from entering, so we went out and left everything behind us because we did not know how to react.”

Dozens of families also found shelter in a government school, with the help of a group of young volunteers who collect donations and respond to the families’ needs on a daily basis. Moussa Dembele, one of the heads of the family, said: “The children dispersed. We tried to entrust their affairs to relatives. Some of them are here and some are there, but my wife and I live in the open air.”

Mango Toure, head of the Crisis Cell that follows up on the file of those affected, explained, “184 affected people are registered with us, and the priority is to find temporary shelter and resettle these families in other homes.”

For his part, the Public Prosecutor in Abidjan opened an investigation into the incident, and confirmed that “the judicial decision upon which Jacques Brough relies does not authorize any demolition of buildings,” noting that the demolition request submitted by Brough himself concerned only five houses, and that the court rejected this request. The Public Prosecutor described what happened as “a disturbance of public order, acts of violence, and deliberate sabotage of others’ property.” He issued a warrant for his arrest, as he is still on the run.

The Public Prosecutor’s revelations sparked anger among civil society and political parties. Charles Blé Gode, head of the African Congress for Justice and Equality among Peoples, asked: “Bru went accompanied by the security forces, so who entrusted them with this task?” He announced that he had hired a lawyer to follow up on judicial procedures on behalf of those affected, with the aim of obtaining moral and material compensation for the damages.

For its part, the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire, led by Tidjane Thiam, believed that it was difficult to imagine that an operation of this size was carried out by one person, wondering about the logistical means used in the demolition operations, especially the heavy machinery and security insurance that was seen at the site, and called for determining the possible administrative or political responsibilities in the case.

This incident comes at a time when the authorities in the autonomous province of Abidjan are carrying out a series of demolitions of slums in recent days, due to the dangers associated with the rainy season and the collapses it causes in slums.