A woman sits among the debris of demolished buildings in the historic Piassa neighbourhood of Addis Ababa. A government redevelopment project is transforming the area, and people are being forced to move.A woman sits among the debris of demolished buildings in the historic Piassa neighbourhood of Addis Ababa. A government redevelopment project is transforming the area, and people are being forced to move.
Today it lies in ruins. Its distinctive stone houses, with their wooden balconies and slanting metal roofs, are almost all gone. In their place are jagged fields of rubble, picked over by workers with sledgehammers. Piassa was torn down as part of a “road-widening project”. Other demolitions are also taking place. A tailor in a neighbouring district to Piassa said they were given one hour to clear their shop, with no explanation. They later discovered it is due to be replaced by a cycle path.
Experts say Piassa’s destruction broke Ethiopia’s heritage law and urban planning regulations, though the government denies this. Thirty-six of the neighbourhood’s 42 listed buildings have either been destroyed or earmarked for demolition, say heritage experts. Abiy believes it is necessary to remove poverty from Addis’s centre to attract foreign investment and tourism. Earlier this month, he suggested Dubai as a model.
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