KMA’s eviction violates human rights - CHRI

A human rights group said the destruction of a shanty town by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly on Wednesday constitutes gross violation of the rights of inhabitants.

The Africa Office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said the eviction of the over 2000 squatters at the Sodom and Gomorra slum was without a human face.

The comments were made by officials of the group after visiting and interacting with the evictees.

Sodom and Gomorra has been home to many northern Ghana migrants who engage in menial jobs. The evictees told newsmen that they have no money to relocate neither do they have money to afford accommodation in town.

The squatters accused the KMA of swooping on them, destroying their homes together with personal belongings but the latter maintains it gave sufficient notice ahead of the exercise.

Officials of the CHRI observe after visiting the place that the eviction was a breach of the human rights of the squatters.

“We are looking at their rights to adequate housing which the authorities have totally breached. We are yet to find out from them what are the justifications, but from the stories we are getting from the evictees definitely it has been a violation of their human rights,” CHRI officials said.