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.