20 IDPs go on hunger strike in Ingush village of Yandare hunger strike

Twenty internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in a barrack of the village of Yandare, Nazran District of Ingushetia, have announced a hunger strike, demanding from the authorities to provide them with housing in accordance with the current legislation.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 6, nine displaced families living in a barrack in Yandare received prescriptions of district authorities to abandon the barrack before October 11.

The decision to start a hunger strike was made after the head of the rural settlement of Yandare Ismail Padiev told them that the eviction was postponed for a few days, but not cancelled, said Gashir Ozdoeva, the head of the barrack.

The hunger-strikers demand from the authorities to provide them with housing in accordance with the applicable legislation – at the rate of 18.7 square meters per person.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt from Timur Akiev, the head of the office of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in Nazran, that the officials were not evicting the IDPs from the Prigorodny District of North Ossetia and refugees from the Chechen Republic.

In Karabulak, local officials demand to vacate the premises and find rental housing, said Lydia Itazova, a single mother of many children. According to her story, the authorities gave her a land plot; however, the woman has no money to build a house.

In February 2013, the head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov stated that the authorities were rendering help to refugees. At the same time, Mr Evkurov noted that many of them live illegally in Ingushetia, promising to take "radical measures" against those who "have housing and rent it, while living in barracks."