EASTERN PROVINCE

NYAGATARE — The district has resettled residents whose houses were recently demolished in the Nshuri trading centre in Nyagatare district.

The Tabagwe Sector Executive Secretary, Habibu Ngoga, said this while responding to claims that six families were left homeless after their houses were demolished last year, on Christmas Eve.

The demolition was conducted following an order from the province mid last year, to evict residents in that centre, which is largely viewed as a den of criminals.

About 400 residents face eviction, but some of them are still challenging the decision. Some of the affected residents claim to be facing difficult conditions following the demolition of their houses. 

"Since Christmas Eve, I have no where to stay,” said one of the residents, adding that life is becoming harder, with no means of getting any house else where.

However, Ngoga said: "they were there (Nshuri trading centre) just doing their businesses. They had different homesteads somewhere else.”   

Anthlem Rurangwa, the district Vice-Mayor in charge of Economic Affairs also dismissed the claims as false.   

"Contact the Executive Secretaries of Tabagwe and Rwempasha Sectors, they all have details of the kind of houses those people are complaining about,” said Rurangwa.

The affected residents have been demanding compensation for their houses and plots of land, since the eviction order was issued, but district authorities insist that they didn’t have legal status on the said land.

The district has on several occasions accused the residents of illegally occupying the area, erecting buildings and carrying out other development projects there.

But the residents have always dismissed that, claiming they have full authority over the land because they were settled there 13 years ago, by the former Muvumba district authorities. 

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