Rights group: 800,000 evicted in Nigeria

“These widespread and ongoing evictions have resulted in the massive displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, with a disastrous effect on health, education, employment and family cohesion”

Some 800,000 residents were forcibly evicted from their homes in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, over a four-year period to make way for development in the fast-growing city, a rights group said Thursday.

Many of those removed from their homes between 2003 and 2007 were not given due notice or other usual eviction rights. Some were sprayed with tear gas or beaten to force them to leave, the Switzerland-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions said in a new report.

The group _ providing a rare firm estimate of the number of people forced from their homes in Abuja _ called on the government officials to stop evictions it says are pushing many Nigerians further into poverty. Read more