Nubians give Egyptian government deadline

Nubians are prepared to seek international intervention to regain their rights to expropriated lands.
A groom dances as Nubians celebrate at a traditional Nubian wedding in the Nubian village of Adindan near Aswan, south of Egypt, September 30, 2015. For half a century, Egypt's Nubians have patiently lobbied the government in Cairo for a return to their homelands on the banks of the Nile, desperate to reclaim territory their ancestors first cultivated 3,000 years ago. Yet all their efforts to gain political influence have brought next to nothing. In Egypt's incoming parliament, which will be finalised afte
A groom dances as Nubians celebrate at a traditional Nubian wedding in the Nubian village of Adindan near Aswan, south of Egypt, Sept. 30, 2015. - REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Khalid Hassan
@khalidfoaud
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CAIRO — Egypt's displaced Nubians want their land back and are threatening to take their demands to the international community.

The Nubians were forced out of their villages along the Nile River in the 1960s when the Aswan High Dam was constructed, and their decadeslong struggle to return reached a critical point in October, when the government put the land up for sale to Egyptian and foreign investors, as well as farmers. After numerous attempts failed to get the government to recognize their claim to the land, on Dec. 3 a Nubian delegation submitted to Egypt's parliament speaker Ali Abdel Aal a petition outlining their demands.

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