Over 80 residents residing in a riverbed in Windhoek's Freedom Square were left destitute after 33 of their man-made shacks burned to the ground around midnight last night.

The fire left one resident seriously injured and admitted to intensive care at Katutura State Hospital.

Men, women, and children, all unemployed and otherwise homeless, are appealing for assistance.

Some say they have been forced to live here in a riverbed opposite the street from Jacob Marengo Secondary School for over 20 years now.

The residents of Ocean View and Mile 4 in Swakopmund have expressed concern over the rapid mushrooming of informal shacks in the settlement of DRC, on the outskirts of the coastal town.

These concerns were raised by the residents during a consultative meeting organized over the weekend by the Swakopmund municipality.

Over the past years, a significant number of people have been flocking to Swakopmund, driven by the pursuit of opportunities in the mining and tourism sectors. Consequently, this has led to a surge in the number of shacks within informal settlements.

The grave of Amalia |Hones, a royal lineage of the |Khomanin people, is now surrounded by shacks in the Havana Informal settlement.

This is after the Windhoek Municipality relocated some Windhoek residents to that area.

Ouma Amalia |Hones died in 1963 and is buried at farm 508, which is now known as Havana.

In accordance with the traditional norms, headmen and senior leaders of the |Khomanin normally visit this isolated grave site and speak to the ancestors, whose remains lay in this grave.