Egypt govt agrees to allocate 5000 acres to displaced Nubians

The Egyptian government has agreed to allocate 5,320 acres, including agricultural land, to Nubians in areas adjacent to Lake Nasser, the Aswan High Dam's main reservoir, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The decision comes after the previous governmental plan, tailored by Mubarak-era Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Faiza Abu El-Naga, to assign Nubians land-ownership in the residential area of Karkar has been met with wide discontent by the Nubian community, as the area did not include agricultural land.
The governmental initiative comes as part of a compensation program to Egyptian Nubians for 20th Century evictions and the inundation of their main homeland of Lower Nubia as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam during the Nasser-era. The compensation initiative also includes granting Nubians ownership of homes inhabited for more than a 100 years.
It has also been agreed, as part of the compensation program, to improve the performance and capacity of three wells to encourage agricultural activity and stimulate crop production in the Nubian areas of Al Qastal and Adandan. The Egyptian government and the United Nations World Food Programme will jointly undertake the project.
In 1902, residents of Nubian villages in today's known area of Lake Nasser were forced to evacuate in order to escape increased flooding.
The building of the Aswan High Dam Reservoir had a disastrous impact on Egypt’s Nubian community, as it led to the forced resettlement of 44 Nubian villages and displacement of hundreds of families.