Gasenyi inhabitants forcibly evicted from their plots claim compensation

Burundi Government requires residents living within a 40-hectare area around the new President office under construction to leave the place before 31 March 2017. Construction activities in the area of 160 ha must also be suspended. Inhabitants of the area ask the Government to compensate them for their houses and crops.

Burundi President office under construction in Gasenyi area

Minister of Environment, Urban and Land Planning announced on 14 March that all infrastructures and crops within a 40-hectare area of the new Burundi President office under construction in Gasenyi I, Mutimbuzi Municipality in north of Bujumbura must be demolished before 31 March. This measure also applies to owners of parcels within a 160-hectare area who must stop their construction activities. The concerned people are prostrate with this measure. They ask for compensation.

“We know that the government has the right to occupy any place if it wants to use it for public interest. We want it to give us a compensation that is equivalent to the value of the houses we have built there, “says E.N one of residents that fall within the category of people whose construction activities have to be suspended.

The government’s decision to forcibly evict residents from their parcels within ten days threatens them. “We hope that the state will not proceed as we have heard. It would cause us a lot of problems. We ask the government to take a measure that will satisfy all of us.”

“We were surprised as we do not know how it will go down. We heard from the radio that we must leave before the end of March. State agents have already demarcated the 160-ha area. We hope that the government will compensate us, “said another inhabitant of Gasenyi, concerned by the government’s measure.

“We were born in this place. We do not know where to take our families. We call for a talk with the government over the issue,” says M.I, a mother of two children.

Shabani Jean Claude, the chief of the Gasenyi area says the population is surprised because the decision was made precipitously. He requests the Government to give the population a sufficient time for preparation to relocate.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, Omer Niyonkuru, said the owners of the plots will have moved by March 31, 2017. “There won’t be any house compensation because the Ministry of Environment has warned the population of the work planned in this space since 2009. “They were informed that they should not build in this place,” says Niyonkuru.