The Nubians have staged protests over the years, but their efforts often end in beatings and arrests. Most recently, security forces arrested 24 people on September 3, 2017 who were participating in a small, peaceful march in Aswan [2]. Those arrested staged a hunger strike at the General Security and Central Security Forces Center in el-Shallal in Aswan to protest the security forces’ behavior with the demonstrators. [1][2]

They were playing drums and singing as they called for the government to activate Article 236 of the 2014 Egyptian Constitution, which states, “The state [must work] on developing and implementing projects to bring back the residents of Nubia to their original areas and develop them within 10 years in the manner organized by law.” [1]

Local and International rights groups condemned the decision, spearheaded by Amnesty International’s Report from September 12. Stating that the Egyptian authorities should release the activists. [3]

Egypt began displacing Nubians in 1902, when work on the Aswan Low Dam took off. Massive removal came between 1963 and 1964, when the government was building the Aswan High Dam during the days of late President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Residents of 44 Nubian villages were forced to relocate to temporary shelters. [4]

Sisi launched a project in December 2015 designed to increase Egypt's agricultural area by 20% and create new urban communities for the rising population. The project involves 1.5 million acres of land. For this purpose, in August 2016, Sisi issued a decision to annex 922 acres of Khorqandi and Toshka lands in the old Nubian area on the banks of Nasser Lake in southern Aswan. In October 2016, he announced the annexed acres would be auctioned off to Egyptian and foreign investors. The following month, in response to the decision, Nubians organized the “Nubian Return Caravan” and headed to Khorqandi and Toshka to try to halt the auction and get the land returned to them. Security forces stopped the caravan, encircled the protesters and cut off their access to food and beverages. The protestors announced a sit-in for days on the main road. Once government officials came to negotiate with them, Nubians gave the government one month to respond to their demands. [1][5][6]

On Jan. 18 of this year, they got their response during the Youths Conference in Aswan. Sisi exempted 12,000 acres from the Khorqandi project and designated it for the Nubians. He earmarked 320 million Egyptian pounds ($18.1 million) to wrap up projects currently under way in Nasr al-Nuba and Wadi Karkar by June 2018 by improving sewage services, electricity and other facilities. Nubians activists maintain that the money have not been spent yet and that and the details of the expenditure have not been revealed because there is no law organizing the work of the committee.

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