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It has often been called Africa's Venice, Makoko, a sprawling stilt community on Lagos' waterfront. It's home to more than 100,000 people, but almost 20,000 residents have now been forced out as authorities push ahead with plans to develop the city. NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reports from Lagos.
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EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: On a canoe along Makoko's creeks and narrow channels, we weave through the destruction. Swathes of crushed and broken bamboo float on the black water in a dense, slum community of mostly shacks on wooden stilts along the Lagos lagoon. Twenty-seven-year-old Edith Amosun (ph) leads us to a cluster of broken wooden beams in the water, where her home once stood.
EDITH AMOSUN: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: She tells us that in January, excavators crushed hundreds of structures, shot tear gas and live rounds, displacing her and her four children. Makoko was founded in the late 19th century by early settlers to Lagos, but the city's rapid growth in recent decades and the economic ambitions of private and government interests have put these waterfront communities under pressure.
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BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU: These are people who need to understand that it is a big city we're dealing with.
AKINWOTU: Last week, the governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, made a rare statement defending the demolitions in Makoko, which went ahead despite a court order protecting the community.
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SANWO-OLU: We're not demolishing the - all of our Makoko. We're clearing people to stay off behind the high tension (ph).
AKINWOTU: The governor said it was about public safety and that residents were warned not to build homes within 250 meters of a power line.
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AKINWOTU: However, few people in Makoko believe him. Most of the destroyed structures were located much further away, including Edith Amosun's home. And this week, the Lagos State Parliament said that residents in Makoko should be moved to a new location on the outskirts of the city, exactly what residents feared.
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AKINWOTU: Close to 50,000 people have been displaced from just three of the mass evictions along the waterfront in the last year alone. One of the affected communities is Ilagio Tomara (ph), where more than 10,000 people were displaced last March, despite an injunction to prevent it. NPR visited the sandy settlement, where the community lived for decades and where a new luxury housing estate is now being built.
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AKINWOTU: Back in Makoko amid fear of the future, many are still in mourning. According to community leaders, more than 20 people were killed in the violent operations to clear residents away. Many were children, including Edith Amosun's newborn baby, who was born just days before the demolitions she said.
AMOSUN: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: Her daughter was in her arms as she fled her home moments before excavators crushed it. But then police shot tear gas at residents scrambling to escape, so her canoe capsized. She woke up in hospital and found out her baby had died.
AMOSUN: (Non-English language spoken).
AKINWOTU: Amosun had already lost two young children to illness. So she intended to call her daughter (speaking Yoruba), which in Yoruba means, I found someone to cherish or look after. Amosun hoped that by giving her that name, she was willing her to stay. But now she's in mourning again. And in the name of progress, Makoko, a historic waterfront community, is being swept away, one home and one life at a time. Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Lagos.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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