In Aswan, Egypt, Nubians are challenging President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi by demanding to put a stop to the attempt of selling their ancestral land. They want the constitutionally guaranteed Nubian Right of Return to be honoured.
ٍSaturday morning, a Nubian convoy was headed towards the Nubians’ homeland to protest the government’s decision to sell 110,000 acres in Nubian Toushka. The government wants to sell them in an auction as a part of their project “El Million We Nos Fadan”. Nubians, therefore, are requesting to invoke article 236, which dictates that Nubians should go back to their homelands.
The Central Security Forces blocked the convoy in Abu Simbel and refused to let them pass as they were given orders to do so. People on the convoy decided to protest which resulted in them being cut off from food and water.
A lot of state-sponsored projects have led to the displacement of Nubians for many decades now.
In 1902, when the Aswan dam was built, 10 Nubian villages were drowned. And because it provided inadequate storage capacity for planned development, it was raised twice between 1907 to 1912 and 1929 to 1933 which resulted in 18 more villages being drowned. By then, there were 11 Nubian villages left. They were deported in 1964.
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