Egypt’s Nubians fight for ancestral land earmarked for mega-project

A strip of desert near Aswan city is one of the last remaining areas of the once thriving Nubian empire in southern Egypt, but its descendants are banned from setting foot there. When a group of 150 protesters tried, in November, to reach the area, the closest they came to it was a sit-in on a road outside the city. In early January, eight young men were arrested for organizing further protests against the sale of the land, which lies to the west of Lake Nasser, to investors. Days later, Egyptian authorities summoned Mohamed Azmy, head of the General Nubian Union. He says they threatened him with arrest if he and his colleagues did not dissolve the union and freeze its assets.

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