Africa-Press. Nigerian police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Lagos demonstrating against demolition operations targeting the floating neighborhood of Makoko, one of Africa’s largest floating slums.
Local sources said the demolitions displaced thousands of residents whose homes, built on stilts above the water, were destroyed.
Authorities in Lagos State, backed by police and bulldozers, are carrying out the removal of homes they say were built “illegally” near high-voltage power lines.
More than 1,000 angry residents and affected families marched to the Lagos State Assembly building to express their outrage over the demolitions. Protesters refused police orders to disperse and instead demanded to be addressed by the Lagos State governor, whose office is located nearby. Police subsequently fired tear gas to break up the gathering, injuring one person in the leg, who was taken to hospital.
Lagos State officials, assisted by armed police and demolition equipment, had earlier demolished homes in the informal Makoko settlement on the outskirts of the commercial capital, arguing that residents had built their homes illegally—mostly wooden shacks constructed on stilts over water—near high-voltage electricity lines.
Makoko traces its origins to a fishing village more than 100 years old, and organizations estimate its population at between 80,000 and 200,000.
Lagos, with a population exceeding 20 million, faces an acute housing crisis that is driving the expansion of informal settlements.
