In recent weeks, the international community has been outraged by former U.S. President Donald Trump’s remarks suggesting that Palestinians be forcibly removed from Gaza so that a luxury resort can be built in its place. The proposal, widely condemned as ethnic cleansing, envisions the erasure of an entire population to make room for the rich.
Yet, while the world points fingers at Trump’s audacity, a similar story is unfolding right here in Addis Ababa under the leadership of Mayor Adanech Abebe. The so-called “corridor project,” particularly in areas like Kasanchiz, has become a brutal urban displacement program that echoes the logic behind Trump’s Gaza proposal. If Gaza and Kasanchiz are both being erased for the benefit of the wealthy, we might as well call it what it is—Gazanchis—the wholesale removal of a people in the name of so-called progress.
Kasanchiz: A Neighborhood Erased
For generations, Kasanchiz has been home to thousands of Addis Ababa’s working-class residents. It has been a lively neighborhood, filled with small businesses, family-owned shops, and a sense of community that no luxury high-rise could ever replace. But under Adanech Abebe’s administration, Kasanchiz has been bulldozed beyond recognition. Families who have lived there for decades are being forcibly removed without any meaningful compensation or relocation options. Unlike true urban renewal projects, which integrate former residents into redevelopment plans, this corridor project is an outright eviction.
Where are the displaced people supposed to go? Nowhere, as far as the government is concerned. Their homes are demolished, their livelihoods erased, and their voices silenced. The very land they were born and raised on is being auctioned off to wealthy developers who plan to erect luxury apartments—apartments that will never be affordable to those who were originally living there.
“Development” for the Rich, Displacement for the Poor
The justification for this corridor project is “modernization” and “beautification”—buzzwords that mean nothing for the displaced. The government promises infrastructure upgrades, better roads, and a world-class city, but at whose expense? If development only benefits the wealthy while pushing the working-class majority into the margins, can it truly be called development? Or is it just gentrification by force?
Just as Trump’s Gaza proposal seeks to turn a war-torn land into a paradise for the rich while ignoring the suffering of its people, the Addis Ababa administration is transforming Kasanchiz into Gazanchis—land cleansed of its original inhabitants so that the elite can live in luxury, untouched by the struggles of the working class.
Urban Cleansing is Still Cleansing
What is happening in Addis Ababa is not new. We have seen this before in areas like Arat Kilo and Piassa, where historic neighborhoods were torn down in favor of commercial centers and glass towers. The same fate is now befalling Kasanchiz. The city’s leadership is not redeveloping these areas to improve the lives of residents—it is cleansing them to make way for an elite few.
Displacement is not development. It is violence. And just as Trump’s Gaza proposal has been called out for what it is, it is time to call out what’s happening in Addis Ababa. The corridor project is not modernization—it is Gazanchis, a policy of forced removal and economic apartheid disguised as urban planning.
The Future of Addis Ababa Cannot Be Built on Displacement
If Addis Ababa’s leadership truly cared about development, it would prioritize inclusive urban planning. It would create housing projects that integrate original residents rather than evict them. It would ensure that the working class—who built this city—are not erased in favor of luxury high-rises that serve only the wealthy few.
Trump’s Gaza proposal and Adanech’s Kasanchiz project are two sides of the same coin—policies that favor the rich while erasing the poor. If we do not resist, Addis Ababa will become a city of glass towers without a soul, a metropolis where only the privileged can afford to live. The people of Kasanchiz—and all of Addis Ababa—deserve better.
Development should not mean destruction. And cities should not be built on the graves of their own people.
