Homeless sit-in at Egyptian state TV finally ends with promises of homes

Ahram Online, Saturday 13 Aug 2011

The three-month sit-in before state TV in Maspero by hundreds of homeless people in Cairo has ‎finally ended after clashes were calmed by government promises that it had arranged for residential ‎units

Maspero
Several tents were set up for three months in front of the state TV building (Photo: Mai ‎Shaheen)‎

Hundreds of homeless people that have been sitting-in for three month at Cairo’s government media building, Maspero, are finally going “home,” after the government said they have found residence for them. ‎

It was reported that Saturday morning saw violent clashes between the beleaguered ‎protesters and the government office representatives, who ended the mayhem by ‎stressing that the residential units wereready. ‎

Traffic in front of the state TV building has returned to normal and all tents have been ‎removed. ‎

Meanwhile, military and police troops are evidently present, and army soldiers have been putting up cement blocks in front of the TV building, apprently to prevent similar sit-ins from taking place in ‎the future.

On the other hand, the 1000 homeless families that had been gathering in the city of El-Nahda have not yet gotten their promised units.

Sanaa Ali, a woman protesters, said no one from the governorate office came to ‎show them their designated units. ‎

The destitute protesters used to be tenants in the cities of El-Nahda and El-Salam before ‎the landlords kicked them out in the wake of the January 25 Revolution, leaving over ‎‎‎1,300 families without accommodation.‎

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