Gomoa Budumburam: Over 600 people rendered homeless after demolition exercise

About 600 Liberians and Ghanaians have been rendered homeless as a result of a demolition exercise carried out by the Gomoa Fetteh Traditional Council on February 27, 2024.

The council says the exercise is to create space for the development of a market for traders who have been affected by the ongoing expansion of the Kasoa-Winneba Highway.

The Gomoa Fetteh Traditional Council last week threatened to demolish portions of Zone E of the Budumburam camp to make way for the development of a market for traders who have been affected by the ongoing expansion works on the Kasoa-Winneba Highway.

The Traditional Authority laments that the activities of these market women along the stretch are impeding the work of contractors working on the expansion of the highway.

The traditional council carried through with the threat today by demolishing several structures at the Liberia Camp.

Meanwhile, some members of the community who have been affected by the exercise say they were taken by surprise as they blame the traditional council for extending the exercise beyond the zones that were marked earlier.

According to them, about 600 Liberian nationals no longer have places to lay their heads as a result of the exercise.

“We’ve been displaced now and our homes have been destroyed. We don’t have anywhere to go, and we want the government to do something about the exercise,” Jamal George, a displaced resident, told Citi News.

Leadership of the Liberian Community accused the Ghanaian government of neglecting them.

They believe the demolition exercise is a clandestine move by the government and the traditional council to kick them out of the settlement.

For them, the demolition exercise is an affront to the UN’s convention on refugee settlements.

Several persons, most especially the aged who are weak and fragile, have become more vulnerable as there will be no place for them to lay their heads.

They are thus seeking shelter at some basic schools in the Buduburam community, arguing that those schools were established for the purpose of the existence of the refugee camp.

The Gomoa East District Assembly is yet to respond to the matter.