A/HRC/29/41 dwelling unit, with building permits obtained illegally or without the necessary building permit, or that the land had been reassigned, which had rendered the individual’s use illegal. 50. In many instances, the homes had been built over many years and had cost the entire life savings of those who had invested in them on the assumption that matters would be formalized at a later point, for example, after the payment of fines imposed by the relevant authorities, given that authorities had delivered only a few building permits since 2006. Even in situations where renovations were undertaken due to wear and tear, residents faced problems, as pointed out by one interlocutor:28 If part of an old building needs to be renovated or to be fixed, they consider that you are building afresh and punish you as if you are building a new house. If they think you have built without permission, you don’t get any warning, your house gets marked with a sign and they send military personnel to destroy your house without any warning. They also can also ask you to demolish your own house and if you don’t they do it themselves and ask you to pay for the cost of demolition. 1. Forced evictions and their impact 51. The Special Rapporteur has received information concerning recent demolitions of approximately 800 houses in Asmara, in several other villages in the vicinity of Asmara and in other towns, such as Adi Keyh, in the southern part of the country. About 3,000 people were made homeless owing to the forced evictions and demolitions.29 With relatives and friends giving refuge to those evicted, an already serious problem of overcrowded housing with limited access to affordable water and safe sanitation has been exacerbated. Many of those evicted have gone back to their villages or to the outskirts of their towns, in the hope of being able to afford shelter. 52. Residents protested that the evictions had been carried out without appropriate and adequate notice. After threatening to demolish the dwellings, the authorities simply moved in and residents were left in a state of fear as officials marked their houses with crosses before pulling the structures down. Military personnel carried out the evictions with heavy equipment (bulldozers and other construction equipment), engaging in egregious brutality and violence against anyone who stood in the way of the demolition, thus forcing many of those affected to become bystanders as their homes were demolished. 53. In the case of Adi Keyh, town residents opposed the demolition and eviction plan fiercely, leading to physical confrontations between high-school children and the military. The Special Rapporteur received reports that at least two people who stood in the way of the military to save their homes were allegedly killed on 5 March 2015.30 A dozen high school students were taken into custody when they tried to stop the demolitions and because of their participation in the protests. In other cases, residents were forced to scramble to protect their few possessions as the bulldozers relentlessly crushed everything in their path. There is little evidence that the State authorities took any proactive measures to inform those facing eviction of the demolitions. The impact has been greater on more vulnerable groups of society, including women, children and the elderly. 28 29 30 14 Ibid. The figures represent conservative estimates collated from different sources provided by human rights defenders, as the authorities have not made any official statistics available regarding the number of houses torn down, the number of people displaced, the number of people injured and the number of those who lost their lives during the evictions. There are conflicting reports regarding the number of people who were killed or injured in the process of demolition by the military. The authorities have not published any official statistics.