{"id":17389,"date":"2025-08-11T17:22:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T15:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17389"},"modified":"2026-10-08T00:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:04:21","slug":"madinat-al-amal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/madinat-al-amal\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairo\u2019s \u201cCity of Hope\u201d Rises on the Ruins of Ezbet El-Haggana"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, Rahim El-Rawi\u2019s family, who live beside the wall of the Gardenia compound in Ezbet El-Haggana\u2014now called Madinat Al-Amal, or City of Hope\u2014received an unsettling visit. Cairo governorate employees were marking neighbouring houses as part of an inventory ahead of further demolitions.<\/p>\n

The officials said they were numbering homes and collecting information about residents and ownership. They gave no compensation figures, telling residents only that they were following instructions and that governorate officials had the details.<\/p>\n

The visit revived memories of earlier clearances associated with the Shinzo Abe road, which links Mostafa El-Nahas Street to the Cairo\u2013Suez road. Hundreds of buildings were removed, and displaced residents were offered housing in projects such as Ahalina and Al-Asmarat. A separate redevelopment scheme near the Gardenia triangle covered another 232 properties, with offers of alternative flats or residential compensation of EGP 5,000 per square metre.<\/p>\n

El-Rawi told Zawia3 that most affected residents had preferred replacement homes after being promised they could return to the same site. But construction continued for more than two years, he said, before they learned that the replacement option had been withdrawn and only financial compensation remained.<\/p>\n

He said new flats in the Al-Amal compound, developed by Contrac Urban Development in twelve-storey buildings, were being marketed for EGP 2.6\u20133.5 million, with advertised prices reaching EGP 35,000 per square metre. He contrasted those prices with the EGP 5,000 compensation rate, arguing that the development was being marketed to new buyers rather than returning residents. The comparison reflects residents\u2019 concerns; compensation for existing property and the sale price of a newly built unit are not identical valuations.<\/p>\n

Ezbet El-Haggana lies in Cairo\u2019s Nasr City between the Shinzo Abe corridor and the Suez road, close to upscale developments such as Gardenia. It is one of the capital\u2019s largest unplanned settlements. Population figures vary sharply with the date and boundaries used: the original report cites 39,432 in the 2006 census, while some residents believe the wider settlement houses more than a million. A cited 2024 figure of 685,361 concerns the broader East Nasr City district, not Ezbet El-Haggana alone. These figures should not be treated as directly comparable measures of the same area.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment involves Cairo governorate, the Armed Forces Engineering Authority and Contrac. Many residents, however, see the area\u2019s strategic position beside major roads and expensive residential compounds as the driving attraction for property investors.<\/p>\n

The Shinzo Abe corridor, already known by that name in 2021, extends approximately eight kilometres, including about two kilometres through the neighbourhood. Reporting on the road describes a width of up to 37 metres and four bridges built by Cairo governorate and the Engineering Authority.<\/p>\n

In an official statement dated 7 August 2024<\/a>, Governor Ibrahim Saber described the new City of Hope as a model for upgrading unplanned areas: 22 residential buildings on ten feddans, supplied with services and infrastructure. He said residents had been consulted about compensation or returning after redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The governorate\u2019s inventory covered 232 buildings containing 1,166 homes and 224 shops and stores, plus 23 vacant plots. Residential compensation was set at EGP 5,000 per square metre, while those wishing to return were to receive approximately EGP 30,000 in rent support pending completion. The statement did not specify that this was a monthly allowance.<\/p>\n

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Development for whom?<\/h2>\n

Mohamed Samer moved to Ezbet El-Haggana with his family forty years ago. Their home had neither electricity nor running water. He studied by a kerosene lamp and spent his days carrying water containers more than a kilometre in Cairo\u2019s heat. Transport stopped at Ideal Almaza on one side and Al-Asher on the other, leaving residents poorly connected.<\/p>\n

Over time, makeshift shelters and small houses became apartment buildings with utilities. Samer now believes the neighbourhood residents built with their own hands is being turned into a property investment whose units sell for millions, while compensation leaves existing residents unable to buy replacements.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy flat is valued at around EGP 400,000, while the replacement in City of Hope is priced at EGP 2.4 million. I would have to pay the difference in instalments for the rest of my life.\u201d \u2014 Mohamed Samer<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He fears losing a replacement flat if he cannot keep up repayments. He cannot understand how the authorities could remove him from a home his family built from their daily earnings to make way for apartments priced far beyond their means.<\/p>\n

He compares their position with families who lived in makeshift dwellings under high-voltage cables and received furnished flats with appliances. Owners of established homes in the neighbourhood, he says, now face displacement.<\/p>\n

Most residents are barely managing utility bills, Samer said, and cannot afford either a new home or instalments. He will not leave, he added, unless compensation enables him to buy a comparable flat.<\/p>\n

Other families beside Gardenia\u2019s wall, including Yasmin Hamdan\u2019s, found demolition markings on their homes in early August 2025. She said officials provided no information about their future or compensation. When rumours spread that the governor would visit to discuss the issue, residents gathered in the street, according to her account.<\/p>\n

East Nasr City district head Ahmed Gouda said in January 2025<\/a> that the 232-property redevelopment area also included a mosque. Of the buildings, 171 had been completely demolished, 19 were undergoing partial demolition, 11 were being vacated and 31 awaited removal. The approximately ten-feddan site lies behind the Third Nasr City Police Station.<\/p>\n

He said 1,027 residents and business owners had received compensation. The reported rates were EGP 5,000 per residential square metre, EGP 10,000 for shops, EGP 7,000 for storage premises and EGP 8,000 for vacant land. A separate earlier total, up to June 2024, recorded EGP 162.6 million paid through the post office in 477 cases.<\/p>\n

The governorate says redevelopment will replace unplanned housing with 22 residential towers and basic infrastructure: water, electricity, sanitation and planned streets. Road-widening works associated with the Shinzo Abe corridor also involved substantial clearance; reporting cited 672 homes in two phases, 567 followed by 105. These roadworks and the 232-property redevelopment scheme are distinct sets of figures.<\/p>\n

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Capturing the value of the city<\/h2>\n

Urban policy researcher Hend El-Ghazal considers the demolitions part of a broader approach: clearing long-established neighbourhoods and relocating residents to developments on urban fringes, often without spatial or housing justice.<\/p>\n

She argues that the state is emptying parts of the old city to capture their market value\u2014their land, location and established services. In her assessment, relocation schemes such as Ahalina, Al-Mahrousa and Al-Asmarat risk creating segregated residential enclaves.<\/p>\n

El-Ghazal said compensation mechanisms lack fairness and clarity, while official messages conflict. She referred to remarks by Transport and Industry Minister Kamel El-Wazir denying entitlement to compensation where land belongs to the state, contrasting that approach with residents\u2019 long-established occupation. Such occupation and legal ownership nevertheless remain different questions.<\/p>\n

She recalled that the Informal Settlements Development Fund, established in 2008, distinguished between unsafe areas, areas needing improvement and unplanned areas. Earlier initiatives, including those associated with former minister Laila Iskandar, attempted to involve residents. She believes current decisions are fragmented, with the label \u201cinformal\u201d used to justify eviction and deny the possibility of remaining.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Zawia3, El-Ghazal described a military-led neoliberal urban policy in which upgrading appears increasingly concerned with extracting property value. She also sees a security dimension in emptying central areas, including the vicinity of Tahrir Square, to prevent gatherings.<\/p>\n

She said clearance has extended to planned neighbourhoods such as Almaza and Al-Sabtiya. She linked this to the \u201curban exception\u201d examined in her master\u2019s research: established legal rules and planning classifications being set aside for particular projects, such as bridges, with decisions concentrated in one authority and no clear criteria.<\/p>\n

Housing justice, she argued, requires understanding each community and involving residents rather than applying a standard model of removal to the periphery. She sees the current process as a reshaping of Cairo\u2019s population, pushing poor people\u2014and sometimes others\u2014towards its margins.<\/p>\n

A housing and urban rights specialist, who requested anonymity, similarly argued that the project was improving the surroundings of an investment development rather than responding to residents\u2019 priorities.<\/p>\n

Unlike families living under power cables who had sought relocation because of poor housing conditions, he said, many Haggana residents live in concrete homes they built to meet their needs. Their longstanding problems concern schools, hospitals, youth centres and infrastructure, which he believes could be addressed without demolition.<\/p>\n

He described compensation as commonly inadequate: replacement flats may be smaller, while cash falls below market prices, forcing people elsewhere. He also questioned the consistency of decisions affecting residents who had sought land regularisation or reconciliation over building violations. Why, he asked, should some applicants be allowed to regularise while others in similar circumstances lose their homes?<\/p>\n

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The right to a home<\/h2>\n

Malek Adly, a human-rights lawyer and head of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, criticised the authorities\u2019 handling of unplanned neighbourhoods. He said it raised fundamental questions about respect for private property, established lawful possession and social security.<\/p>\n

Making people feel insecure in their own homes, he argued, undermines social stability. He connected redevelopment disputes to legislative intervention in existing tenancy arrangements, including the old-rent law, which he considers contrary to the principle that contracts bind their parties.<\/p>\n

Adly drew parallels with disputes in Warraq Island, Nazlet El-Semman, Almaza, Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid, as well as communities affected by road extensions.<\/p>\n

He cited the compensation framework in Expropriation Law 10 of 1990<\/a>, under which property is assessed by reference to prevailing prices when the public-benefit decision is issued. He questioned the meaning of public benefit when low-income residents are displaced from valuable land for expensive investment housing.<\/p>\n

\n

Adly argued that replacing a low-income community with a luxury property development should not, by itself, be treated as a public benefit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He distinguished lawful forms of possession, including allocation decisions and certain riverbank land arrangements, from occupation of state land, which does not itself confer ownership. Nonetheless, he called for reconsidering how long-established communities are treated: the public interest may favour residents who developed land over decades rather than removing them once its value rises.<\/p>\n

State land, he argued, belongs to the public rather than officials, and should be managed for citizens rather than used to generate profit at their expense.<\/p>\n

Medhat El-Zahed, head of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party and the Civil Democratic Movement, said redevelopment must protect housing rights and residents\u2019 connections to their neighbourhoods. The state\u2019s role, he argued, begins with housing, education, healthcare, food, work and equal access to public services, not simply fees and bridges.<\/p>\n

Communities are connected to workshops, schools and workplaces. Moving them requires careful study. He favours preserving those relationships or providing suitable replacement homes within the same neighbourhood\u2014for example, building residential towers on limited sites that could accommodate residents from an entire street.<\/p>\n

El-Zahed considered EGP 5,000 per square metre far below market value and insufficient to secure alternative housing. He called for direct government intervention, pointing to large numbers of vacant units and the unaffordability of much housing offered through public bodies.<\/p>\n

He also urged broad consultation with residents\u2019 associations and civil-society organisations rather than unilateral decisions by central bureaucracy. The prolonged absence of elected local councils, he said, had weakened institutions closest to residents and best placed to address local problems.<\/p>\n

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The MP\u2019s response<\/h2>\n

Amr El-Sonbaty, MP for Nasr City, denied that residents had recently gathered to oppose demolitions. He told Zawia3 that some had contacted him individually while he was abroad and that he would follow up on returning. His account differs from Hamdan\u2019s description of residents gathering in the street.<\/p>\n

He said residents\u2019 principal demand was increased compensation. According to El-Sonbaty, the state offers affected households either cash or alternative accommodation in social housing, as it has in other areas.<\/p>\n

He maintained that current demolitions were confined to a limited area connected with the Shinzo Abe road extension, rather than the entire neighbourhood. He said the situation was stable and that continued communication would reassure residents.<\/p>\n

The disagreement is therefore not simply over whether development is needed. Authorities present the works as a route to improved living conditions and compensation; residents and rights specialists question whether the offers allow existing households to return or remain nearby.<\/p>\n

For those interviewed, adequate housing means more than walls and a roof. It encompasses the community, work and daily life built around a home. Their concern is that the City of Hope may rise on land they spent decades developing, while putting its new homes beyond their reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents facing demolition in Ezbet El-Haggana question whether compensation will let them return, as new apartments are marketed beyond their means.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[],"kateb":[11992],"class_list":["post-17389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en","kateb-basant-noor-el-din"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u0639\u0632\u0628\u0629-\u0627\u0644\u0647\u062c\u0627\u0646\u0629-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17390,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389\/revisions\/17390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17389"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}