Namibia honoured the victims of mass killings during German colonial rule with an inaugural memorial day on Wednesday, as politicians and affected communities voiced fresh calls for reparations from Berlin.
German soldiers killed some 65,000 OvaHerero and 10,000 Nama people in 1904-1908 in what historians and the United Nations have long called the first genocide of the 20th century.
In 2021 Germany officially described the massacre as a genocide for the first time, agreeing to fund development projects worth 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in the Southern African country, but stopping short of paying reparations.
Namibian officials and representatives of the OvaHerero and Nama people say that is not enough.
Namibia’s government chose to mark Genocide Remembrance Day on May 28 because it was on that date that German colonial authorities ordered the closure of concentration camps.
NAMIBIA HONOURS VICTIMS OF COLONIAL GENOCIDE AS REPARATION CALLS GROW
