Today, February 27, 2024, the Gomoa Fetteh Traditional Council carried out a demolition project that left some 600 Ghanaians and Liberians without a place to live.
According to the council, the goal of the exercise is to make room for the growth of a market for vendors impacted by the Kasoa-Winneba Highway’s continuous expansion.
In an attempt to create a market for traders impacted by the continuing construction on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway, the Gomoa Fetteh Traditional Council last week threatened to demolish parts of Zone E of the Budumburam camp.
The Traditional Authority laments the fact that these market women’s actions are obstructing contractors’ work on the extension of the highway.
Several buildings at the Liberia Camp were demolished today as the traditional council followed through on its threat.
Though they accuse the traditional council of pushing the exercise outside of the previously designated zones, other community members who have been impacted by it claim they were caught off guard.
They claim that, as a result of the exercise, roughly 600 citizens of Liberia are without a place to sleep.
“Now that our homes have been damaged, we are without a place to live. Having nowhere to go, we urge the government to take action over the exercise,” said Jamal George, a local who was forced to leave.
The Liberian community’s leadership charged that the Ghanaian government was ignoring them.
They think that the government and the traditional council are using the demolition effort as a covert means to evict them from the settlement.
According to them, the demolition project violates the UN convention on refugee camps.
Many people have grown more vulnerable as there won’t be anywhere for them to sleep, especially the elderly, who are frail and weak.
They claim that the basic schools in the Buduburam hamlet were founded specifically to accommodate the refugee camp, which is why they are seeking sanctuary there.
The issue has not yet received a response from the Gomoa East District Assembly.
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