First modification:
In recent months, the Saudi Arabian government has launched a massive demolition campaign targeting dozens of slums in Jeddah, the country’s second largest city, to make way for an urban development project. However, with little time to leave and no compensation, hundreds of thousands of people who used to reside in these neighborhoods now find themselves uncertain, desperate and with no way to appeal.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, announced the launch of a development project called Central Jeddah. The project would include a museum, an opera house, a stadium, an aquarium, hotels and new residential neighborhoods.
But authorities have carried out demolitions in some 60 different neighborhoods, most of them located in the southern part of the city, near the port. Even the demolitions are expected to continue and more neighborhoods will be affected in the coming months.
Mohamed (not his real name), a resident of Jeddah, told The Observers team about the impact of these demolitions: “The authorities have not provided enough resources to relocate all the families. City workers posted notices on certain buildings. The notices said: ‘Must move in two days…three days…or a week.’ If people didn’t move, they cut off the electricity and threw their belongings on the street.”
“The government says it has given shelter to some of the displaced families. But not the majority. Activists estimate that almost 800,000 people have been displaced in total. They have not found new homes for all of them. It’s okay to want to modernize the city. But not if it harms the residents,” adds Mohamed.
#Observers #Saudi #Arabia #Desperate #Residents #Mass #Demolition #Neighborhoods #Jeddah