Lagos court demands state halt slum demolitions
LONDON - More than 300,000 people living on the edge of Lagos' lagoon may be spared eviction after a court ruled that planned demolitions of waterfront slums would be "inhuman and degrading", campaigners said.
A Lagos State High Court ruled Thursday that the state government must enter into mediation with dozens of eviction-threatened communities that ring the lagoon at the heart of Nigeria's largest city to discuss their fate.
Lagos-based legal campaign group Justice and Empowerment Initiatives (JEI) said the ruling was unprecedented in Nigeria.
"We've never before had a ruling like this that forced eviction and demolition constitutes a violation of the rights of dignity," Megan Chapman, co-director of JEI, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
