Christian Aid Partner Highlights Homeless Families in Angola

Christian Aid partner SOS Habitat has invited national and international media, ambassadors, EU and UN representatives to visit them in the makeshift camp in the suburbs of Angola's capital Luanda, from 15-20 August.

|TOP|Over 300 families who have been living in the Cambamba 1 and 2 neighbourhoods of Luanda for more than 20 years were forced to leave their homes in March 2006, as armed police and bulldozers tore down their homes and buried their possessions to make way for a new housing development.

The families have received no compensation for the destruction of their homes, with no plans to re-house them.

SOS Habitat want people to see for themselves the appalling conditions there, and to hear first-hand from poor families who were forced from their homes at gunpoint.

“We want those in power to see the cruel and degrading conditions these families are living in, and to face up to their responsibilities," says SOS Habitat co-ordinator Luis Araujo.

“These people have been treated like human rubbish, instead of Angolan citizens,” added Araujo, drawing parallels with last year's wave of evictions and home demolitions in Zimbabwe, which left 700,000 homeless and/or without a job.

The operation there was called Murambatsvina, meaning 'drive out the rubbish'.

Cambamba's former residents now live in shelters of tin and torn sackcloth in a makeshift camp, as families sleep huddled together on the floor in the midst of a cold winter.

|AD|Many children have grown sick sick, and most of those who used to go to school can no longer attend, as their registration documents were buried in the rubble of their homes.

The families can now see the smart new apartments being built under the new housing project, called Nova Vida (New Life), where homes there are worth up to 500,000 US dollars.

SOS Habitat uses peaceful and legal means to protect poor people's housing rights, opposing illegal evictions and demolitions.

But during recent months their work has been hampered by arrests, detentions, beatings, verbal abuse and the confiscation of equipment.

“If the people we've invited don't come, it shows their complicity,” says Araujo, “People can't keep sitting in their air-conditioned offices with their eyes closed. They need to see the reality and to face up to their responsibilities.

“British companies are working in Angola, they should pay attention to the way our government is treating its own people.”