The people affected say that the demolition of their homes, built in the area surrounding the construction works of the New Luanda International Airport (NAIL) took place in the early hours of last Friday and Saturday.
The demolitions, as Miguel Fernandes, one of those affected and a member of the residents' committee, told Lusa this Wednesday, were allegedly in charge of personnel from the national police and the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and took place "under gunfire".
"The demolitions at kilometer 38 took place in the early hours of Saturday, but from kilometer 36 onwards they started at dawn on Friday, many houses were demolished up to kilometer 40, I don't have in mind how many", said the resident.
The neighborhoods in which the houses were torn down, comprising kilometers 36, 38, 40 and 44, are part of the commune of Bom Jesus, municipality of Icolo e Bengo, one of nine in the capital.
"In principle it was a commission that appeared and marked the residences that the GPL (Government of the Province of Luanda) would demolish, and it didn't take long on the second day the demolitions began with shots by the FAA and the police without any registration", he recalled.
Living in the locality for almost 40 years, Miguel Fernandes lamented the condition of hundreds of people who remain out in the open and without any information from the municipal administration bodies about their fate.
"To this day, the administration doesn't say anything, doesn't talk to the people and we continue out in the open, under the rain and we have nowhere to stay", he lamented.
Affected people are waiting for resettlement, but, he stressed, "so far they have not told us anything".
Images circulating on social media expose the rubble of dozens of demolished houses on the perimeter of the NAIL and families out in the open with what little they have left.
Asked about the matter, the Minister of Public Works and Territorial Planning, Manuel Tavares de Almeida, said, on Tuesday night, that a solution is in sight to compensate families who saw their homes demolished in the NAIL area.
"Yes, the ministry is leading the resettlement project, where the NAIL was requested, although I am part of the inter-ministerial commission for monitoring this airport, this survey of people who are in the area is part of the coordination of the project", he said, during the fourth edition of the Press Center of the Presidency of the Republic of Angola (CaféCIPRA).
Manuel Tavares de Almeida also assured that the resettlement will cover "only people registered and who are in the district before the start of construction" of the NAIL.
The President, João Lourenço, visited the construction works at NAIL, on April 9, 2022, when the Minister of Transport, Ricardo de Abreu, said that the works would end in the first quarter of 2023 and that of the 1,2 billion euros financed, 40 percent had already been implemented.
The construction works of the NAIL began in 2007 and its certification process should start next June.
