• Press Release

Chad: Thousands of victims of forced evictions denied justice

June 7, 2011

Tens of thousands of people forcibly evicted from their homes since 2008 without due process or adequate compensation in Chad’s capital N’Djamena have been left homeless and jobless, Amnesty International said in a short report released today in N’Djamena.

The 12-page document No Homes, No Justice, No Dignity: Victims of forced evictions in Chad calls on the Chadian government to immediately stop carrying out forced evictions and ensure that all victims have access to justice including fair compensation.

“Some of the victims of these forced evictions have been living in makeshift shacks for the past three years,” said Christian Mukosa, Amnesty International’s Chad researcher. “Others have had to move back to their villages of origin.”

“Very few families have been compensated for their losses. Where court decisions have ruled in favour of the victims, they have rarely been enforced.”

The authorities first began forced evictions in N’Djamena in February 2008. National and municipal authorities have continued to demolish homes and businesses since, claiming that these new waves of evictions are part of a plan to redevelop the city.

Many of the sites from which people have been forcibly evicted were still unoccupied at the end of May 2011. In others it appears that plots have been allocated to other people to build on while many of those evicted remain without access to adequate housing.

“This is unjust; the least the authorities could do is give us reparation,” Apollinaire Djeria told Amnesty International. His house was destroyed in April 2009. His daughter has lost two years of schooling because his family had to stay with relatives a long way from her school.

Forced evictions are a violation of human rights, in particular the right to adequate housing, and contravene a range of treaties that Chad is party to. According to international human rights law, evictions may only be carried out as a last resort once all other feasible alternatives have been explored and once appropriate procedural safeguards are put in place.

“The waves of demolitions of homes that are taking place in N’Djamena in the past three years are conducted in violation of Chad’s international, regional and national obligations,” said Christian Mukosa. “They must cease.”