Dismay in Addis Ababa as 'the soul of the city' is razed

In the heart of Addis Ababa, the historic, ramshackle district of Piassa once teemed with shops and cafes. People would come from across Ethiopia's capital city to buy anything from jeans to jewellery.

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.

People stop to stare at the wreckage. Some take pictures. But they do not stay long: the ruins are guarded by police carrying clubs. "I'm angry," said a former resident. "It's my heritage that's been destroyed in front of my eyes, without any consultation at all. We were never told the plan."

For years there had been vague talk of demolishing Piassa, sweeping away the densely packed shantytowns that had sprung up between its historic buildings. The area has seen small-scale demolitions, but when the bulldozers moved in last month it was unexpected. One person said they were given five days' notice their family home of more than 50 years would be knocked down. The water and power were cut off after three days.

"Many of our belongings were damaged or stolen during the chaotic process of vacating," they said. Like everyone in Addis Ababa the Guardian spoke to, they talked on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals. Several former residents and heritage experts declined to be interviewed.