1000s of shacks demolished
2008-11-27 20:11
Khartoum - Sudanese police have demolished about 10 000 homes in a shanty-town south of Khartoum, using tear gas to disperse protesting residents, a security source and witnesses told AFP on Thursday.
Police demolished the buildings, home to around 50 000 people, in the Mandela slum which is inhabited mostly by migrants from war-ravaged Darfur and south Sudan, on Wednesday evening, the official said.
"The demolitions were done for the purposes of urban planning," he said.
Police have cordoned off the remains of the shanty town, 10km south of Khartoum, and were turning journalists away from the area.
"The police came yesterday with orders for us to evacuate the homes," said Dominique Matthew, a resident, adding that police used tear gas to enforce the evacuations.
The residents remained in the shanty town amid the rubble of their former homes, he said.