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Security of tenure: Conditions and trends125Region Persons evicted Persons evicted Persons evicted Total1998–2000 2001–2002 2003–2006 1998–2006Africa 1,607,435 4,086,971 1,967,486 7,661,892Europe 23,728 172,429 16,266 212,423The Americas 135,569 692,390 152,949 980,908Asia and the Pacific 2,529,246 1,787,097 2,140,906 6,457,249Total 4,294,978 6,738,887 4,277,607 15,311,472Table 5.5Estimated number ofpeople subjected toforced evictions byregionSource: COHRE, 2002, 2003,2006Notes: The data presented in this table is based on information received by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) directly from affected persons and groups andwhere the cases at hand are particularly noteworthy. Moreover, the data is collected from some 60 to 70 countries only (although the population of these countries amounts to some80 per cent of the total world population). The data is thus not comprehensive in terms of representing the global scale of the practice of forced eviction. Without a doubt, theactual number of forced evictions is considerably higher than what is indicated in the table.• In Sudan, more than 12,000 people were forciblyevicted from Dar Assalaam camp in August 2006. Themajority of the evictees had been previously displacedthrough conflict in Sudan and settled in camps in oraround the capital, Khartoum. Authorities have forciblyevicted thousands of people from these camps, resettlingthem in desert areas without access to clean water,food and other essentials. Currently, there are about 1.8million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in andaround Khartoum. 34• In Luanda, the capital of Angola, at least 6000 familieshave been forcibly evicted and have had their homesdemolished since 2001. Many of these families, whohave received no compensation, have had their propertystolen by those carrying out the forced evictions andremain homeless.• In Equatorial Guinea, at least 650 families have beenforcibly evicted from their homes since 2004, when thegovernment embarked on a programme of urban regenerationin Malabo and Bata. What is even moredisturbing is that these families had title to theirproperty. Thousands more residents are threatened byforced evictions.• In Kenya, at least 20,000 people have been forciblyevicted from neighbourhoods in or around Nairobi since2000.• In Ghana, some 800 people also had their homesdestroyed in Legion Village, Accra, in May 2006, whileapproximately 30,000 people in the Agbogbloshiecommunity of Accra have been threatened with forcedeviction since 2002.Not all news about evictions in Africa is bad, however.Indeed, there is evidence of a growing movement in Africaopposing evictions. In some instances, support in this regardhas come from one of Africa’s most important human rightsinstitutions, the African Commission on Human and PeoplesRights, which broke new ground when it held that Nigeria’s:…obligations to protect obliges it to prevent theviolation of any individual’s right to housing byany other individual or non-state actors likelandlords, property developers, and landowners, and where such infringements occur, itshould act to preclude further deprivations aswell as guaranteeing access to legal remedies.The right to shelter even goes further than aroof over one’s head. It extends to embody theindividual’s right to be let alone and to live inpeace – whether under a roof or not. 35This juxtaposition, of the large-scale global reality of oftenviolent, illegal and arbitrary forced evictions, on the onehand, and the increasingly strong pro-human rights positionstaken against the practice, on the other, captures theessence of the ongoing struggle between those favouringgood governance, respect for the rule of law and the primacyof human rights, and those supporting more top-down,authoritarian and less democratic approaches to governanceand economic decision-making. Efforts to combine bestpractices on the provision of security of tenure with theBox 5.9 Forced evictions: A sample of cases from NigeriaForced evictions hasreached epidemicproportions inAfricaDuring the last two decades it appears as if forced evictions have been extensively used inNigeria as a ‘tool of urban engineering’ in a (largely counterproductive) effort to eliminate thegrowth of slums. Poverty and lack of basic services and amenities have been cited as justificationfor the demolition of entire communities:• When the government of Lagos State in July 1990 demolished the homes of over 300,000Maroko residents, it claimed that the community was prone to flooding and ‘unfit forhuman habitation’.• When the government of Rivers State forcibly evicted over 1 million Rainbow Townresidents in 2001, it claimed that the community harboured too many criminals.• When the government of Lagos State forcibly evicted and burned the homes of over 3000Makoko residents in April 2005, it claimed that it was helping some private citizens toflush out undesirable squatters.• The forced eviction of thousands of residents in Abuja by the Federal Capital CityDevelopment Authority has been presented as an effort to correct distortions to theAbuja Master Plan.• The Lagos State government’s persistent efforts to forcibly evict the Ijora-Badia communityhave been explained by the need to rid the community of filth, flooding andprostitution (see Box 6.21).Additional recent cases of forced evictions have been reported from:• Aboru Abesan, in Ikeja (Lagos State), where at least 6000 residents were renderedhomeless when their homes were demolished by officials of the Federal Ministry ofHousing and Urban Development in January 2005;• Agip Waterside Community in Port Harcourt, where 5000 to 10,000 people wererendered homeless between February and April 2005 when the Rivers State governmentdemolished their homes.Source: COHRE, 2006, p26; Morka, 2007