Germany agrees to pay 1.1 billion euros in Namibia for genocide

Angela Merkel's government saw it as a gesture of reconciliation, but not as legally binding reparations.

Tens of thousands of men, women and children were killed, tortured or deported to Kalahari's desert to die of hunger from German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the tribes of Herero and Nama had rebelled against colonial rule in what was then called German South-Western Africa, now known as Namibia.

Since 2015, Germany has negotiated with Namibia's government in what it calls an attempt to exhumation “wounds” of historical violence, writes The Guardian, render Periscope.

On Wednesday, official circles in Berlin confirmed reports in the Namibian media that after nine negotiating lines both sides were hired for a text of the joint declaration and a total of 1.1m euros, which will be paid in a separate manner in aid programmes for 30 years.

The total, more than a billion euros, will go to land reform projects, rural infrastructure and water supply. /Periscope