2023-10-31 18:37:31
Tuesday, October 31, the operation to clear public property, relaunched by the junta at the end of last week, continued in Kaloum, the administrative and business center. Kiosks, shops, garages, cafeterias were broken. Houses too, but partially.
In the Council of Ministers on October 27, Mamadi Doumbouya, the President of the Transition, gave “firm instructions” to the Ministers of Housing, Security and Territorial Administration, to “proceed with evictions as long as people will return to the scene. » The reason given: the newly paved roads “are starting to be clogged with makeshift garages, traders, etc.”
From Monday October 30, the demolition machines, accompanied by a mixed team (police and gendarmes), went into action in the Boulbinet district, along the southern corniche, a few steps from the Presidency. There, houses were partially demolished. Mrs. Kaba Mamadama Sylla’s living room and veranda were broken. Under the sun, she and her children improvise a makeshift shelter. “We couldn’t do anything. My chairs, my freezer, my bowls are spoiled. We live in sadness. They checked our house last Saturday; Monday, the machines destroyed everything. They are really hurting us. I beg the State to help us, it’s very hard. You build a house for years, it is demolished in a day. »
Mamadi Doumbouya’s disappointments
Kony Sylla, fish scale, under a parasol. The veranda of his house was reduced to rubble. “What is happening to us is pitiful. We no longer have anywhere to go, nothing to eat, my husband has died, we are responsible for the children and their education. Mamadi Doumbouya is in power, we applaud him every time he comes out. The cornice is his road, he must resolve the problems of the cornice. There is a lot of sadness here. »
His neighbor, Fatou Sylla, says she is disappointed with President Mamadi Doumbouya. “We thought he was the savior, but now we are completely disappointed. We live with him in Boulbinet, thinking we are on the same level, but that is not the case. We ask him to rebuild our houses. »
Fodé Youla, home owner, admits that it is normal to clear public rights-of-way, but regrets the way of proceeding. “They broke beyond limits. But we can’t do anything. If someone hurts me, I turn to God. Why don’t we break it up at the scrapyard or at SIG-Madina? » Already, Fodé Youla has hired a mason to rebuild the wall of his veranda.
Tombo too
In the Tombo district, at the entrance to Kaloum, a wheel loader and an excavator are humming. There too, houses and shops were partially broken. Kaba Traoré, Director General of BMS (Digital device and accessories stores): “It’s normal to clean up. I was given 24 hours to pack up. If I have failed to comply with the law, I am obliged to leave. If the authorities decide that things are improving, I can only rejoice. But we do not accept injustice. That is to say, get rid of some and leave others. »
“Everything within the law”
Abou Kourouma, head of the operational urban planning section at the National Directorate of Territorial Planning and Urban Planning, specifies that the eviction concerns the streets and boulevards of Kaloum. “In the past, we had done marking and clearing, but people came back. The government instructs us to clear all bulky physical objects along the public roads of Kaloum. The idea is to clear and monitor.” According to him, the operation will expand to the rest of the communes of Conakry. “We act in accordance with town planning rules, in order to make the town of Kaloum clean. Before the eviction, awareness teams came, everyone was informed,” he concludes.
Yaya Doumbouya
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