See How Much Germany Gave Namibia As Compensation After Admitting Genocide

See How Much Germany Gave Namibia As Compensation After Admitting Genocide

by Victor Ndubuisi
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The German government has agreed to cough out $1.34b as compensation after it openly admitted to have committed genocide in Namibia during its colonial occupation in the African country.

This was disclosed by the European country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Heiko Maas, in a statement released on Friday.

Dubbed the first genocide of the 20th century by historians, tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people were massacred in the African country from 1904-1908.

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The genocide was carried out by a troop led by German Gen. Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to what was then German South-West Africa to put down an uprising by the Herero people in 1904.

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Associated Press reported that Trotha instructed his troops to wipe out the entire tribe which numbered about 65,000 Herero and at least 10,000 Nama.

Mass said: “In the light of Germany’s historical and moral responsibility, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for forgiveness.

“Our aim was and is to find a joint path to genuine reconciliation in remembrance of the victims,” he said.

“That includes our naming the events of the German colonial era in today’s Namibia, and particularly the atrocities between 1904 and 1908, unsparingly and without euphemisms.”

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“We will now officially call these events what they were from today’s perspective: a genocide.”

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In addition to an apology from the German government, the Berlin is promising financial support worth more than one billion euros to aid projects in the African nation coming after more than five years of negotiations with Namibia.

In a “gesture to recognise the immense suffering inflicted on the victims”, the country will support the “reconstruction and the development” of Namibia via a financial programme of 1.1 billion euros ($1.34 billion), he said.

The sum will be paid over 30 years, according to sources close to the negotiations, and must primarily benefit the descendants of the Hereo and Nama.

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At the same time, he said that “legal claims to compensation cannot be derived from this.”

 

Asides from direct dealings have been with the Namibian government, Germany revealed that representatives of the affected tribe – Herero and Nama were involved in the negotiations

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Germany gained control of the desert country in the 1880s and surrendered the territory to South Africa in 1915. Namibia gained independence in 1990.

 

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