Germany agrees to pay Namibia $1.3bn over colonial-era genocide
Germany has agreed to pay $1.3 billion for the killings of Herero and Nama people in Namibia.
This is the first time Germany has acknowledged the massacre as a genocide.
It also comes more than 100 years after the genocide and after over five years of negotiations between the two countries.
According to historians, between 1904 and 1908, German soldiers killed up to 80,000 Herero and Nama people in Namibia after they revolted against colonial troops over land seizures.
In a statement on Friday, Heiko Maas, German foreign minister, said the country will support Namibia and the descendants of the victims with $1.3 billion for reconstruction and development and ask for forgiveness for the “crimes of German colonial rule”.
“I am happy and grateful that we have succeeded in reaching an agreement with Namibia on how to deal with the darkest chapter of our common history,” he said.
“Our goal was and is to find a common path to genuine reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and in particular the atrocities in the period from 1904 to 1908, without sparing or glossing over them. We will now also officially call these events what they were from today’s perspective: a genocide.
“In light of Germany’s historical and moral responsibility, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness.”
Germany, however, refused direct compensations that the victims’ descendants had asked for.
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