Germany has officially acknowledged on May 28, 2021 that it committed genocide during its colonial-era occupation of Namibia. The Country also announced a financial support gesture.
- It’s the first time that Berlin has recognized the atrocities committed, with the declaration coming after five years of negotiations.
- Foreign Minister Heiko Maas acknowledged the killings as genocide.
- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that as a gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering, Germany caused, it would set up a fund amounting USD 1.34 billion.
What was the genocide?
- The United Nations defines genocide as a number of acts, including killing, committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
- Namibia – which was under German occupation from 1884 to 1915.
- German colonists killed tens of thousands of Herero and Nama people there in early 20th Century massacres.
- The atrocities committed have been described by historians as “the forgotten genocide” of the early 20th Century, in what was then known as German South West Africa.
