SULULTA, Ethiopia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Last month, local officials strolled through a neighborhood on the fringes of Sululta, several kilometers north of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Flanked by policemen, they daubed red crosses on homes and pinned notices on doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The notices – a copy of which was obtained by the Thomson Reuters Foundation – ordered residents whose houses had been built without official permits to demolish them within seven days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those who refused would be taken to court, the notice said. There would be no compensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The news sparked worry and anger among residents, many of whom had arrived in the boomtown in Ethiopia\u2019s Oromia region a decade or so ago, but never formally registered the homes they built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a shortage of land and affordable housing has led to an explosion of settlements on the edges of major towns, anxiety is particularly acute among Oromia residents, where authorities began targeting informal housing earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they demolish the house, I cannot imagine what I\u2019ll do – I can\u2019t afford to build another,\u201d said Sululta resident and mother-of-five Tigust Mekuria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be better to kill us than to displace us,\u201d she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in the living room of her family home, her severely disabled daughter lying on her lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Tigust\u2019s neighbor, Tsegaw Asfaw, a group of more than 200 Sululta residents tried traveling to Addis Ababa two days after the eviction notices went up to complain to regional authorities, but were stopped by police en route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, they say, they have heard no word from the government and have no idea when demolitions will begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are still waiting,\u201d Tsegaw said. \u201cWe are in a situation of fear and uncertainty.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regional government spokesman Admassu Damtew said in a phone interview that \u201cthe (Oromia) regional government is clamping down as part of efforts to ensure the rule of law in towns where illegal settlement is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Sululta, the city\u2019s authorities have said the illegal settlements encroach on planned green areas, market places, forests and land earmarked for investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city\u2019s mayor, Rosa Umar, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that a team of experts was assessing which houses would be torn down, adding that though she did not yet know the total, it could be as many as 30,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf the houses are illegal, they have to be demolished,\u201d she said in a phone interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said evictions would begin after the assessment had been concluded, and that there would be a public information campaign to explain the reasons behind the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Satellite towns like Sululta have been on the frontline of a land rush over the past decade, as real estate speculators and low-income households looking for cheap land move from the capital into surrounding Oromia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople were desperate for land,\u201d said Daniel Behailu, a land governance expert at Ethiopia\u2019s Hawassa University. \u201cThey went marching into the peri-urban areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Ethiopia, all land is owned by the state. While buying and selling it is illegal, long-term leases can be bought from the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But homeowners and land law experts say that, in practice, there is a bustling underground market facilitated by developers, brokers and local officials, who often turn a blind eye to illegal activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey (the authorities) were very silent when we were building the houses,\u201d said Sebehat Worku, another Sululta resident, adding that officials had never asked to see any title deeds before last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He and other residents said that officials had never asked them to show their title deeds before last month and had instead helped bring electricity, water and road infrastructure to the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of land use and administration for Oromia, Milkessa Midega, did not respond to several requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Farmers around Sululta have long been selling chunks of their plots to newcomers, convinced that the land will eventually be expropriated by the government as the district urbanises, said Mekonnen Firew Ayano, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard Law School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey (settlers) know that it is illegal\u201d to build on that land, said Mekonnen, who specializes in Ethiopian land law. \u201cBut they hope that one day the municipality will legalize it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That hope is based on precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, Addis Ababa authorities tried to tackle the boom in illegal housing by granting almost 45,000 title deeds to people who had built homes on common land or on plots that belonged to farmers, Mekonnen said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But those instances are rare, according to Mekonnen and other land experts in Ethiopia, who said demolition is much more common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents say they have little trust in the authorities\u2019 motives, a feeling that has become more widespread in the past year amid an ongoing dispute over the constitutional status of the Ethiopian capital, said Mekonnen, the Harvard lawyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Oromo activists and politicians argue that Addis Ababa should be under Oromo jurisdiction, since it is located entirely within the Oromia region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opponents say that as a federal capital with a multi-ethnic population \u2013 of which Oromos make up only about 20 percent, according to the latest census in 2007 – the city should remain under federal jurisdiction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lemma Megersa, who was Oromia regional president until last week, told journalists in December that over the past year, his administration had resettled more than half a million Oromos displaced by conflicts in other parts of the country to towns around Addis Ababa, including Sululta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has contributed to suspicions among residents of the capital that the region\u2019s ruling party, the Oromo Democratic Party, is trying to alter the demographics of the city and its surroundings in favor of the Oromo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Lemma and the country\u2019s new prime minister Abiy Ahmed, an Oromo, have publicly denied the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, Worku Tsedeke, a Sululta resident leading efforts to petition the mayor against the evictions, believes that is what is happening right now in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose targeted (for eviction) are mostly from other parts of the country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see this as racism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts are divided on whether mass legalization of informal settlements, a provision of a 2011 urban land law, could be a workable solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cost and insecurity of demolishing is much more expensive than regularizing,\u201d said Daniel, the land governance expert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt does not help to stop squatting,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Mekonnen warned that would only provide a short-term fix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBlank-cheque legalization sets a precedent that is likely to create more problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, he added, farmers need guarantees that officials will not decide arbitrarily to expropriate their land so they no longer feel the need to sell it off in pieces, while the concerns of settlers \u201cshould be addressed through better housing policies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Birhanu Lenjiso, deputy director of the California-based East African Policy Research Institute, agreed, and said that alternative settlement schemes should be put in place before any homes are demolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLocal officials allowed land to be sold illegally to these settlers, then came later and evicted them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are responsible for this mess.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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