Zimbabwe said it was returning several foreign-owned farms that were seized during a violent land grab more than 25 years ago and paying compensation of $146 million.
Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka told lawmakers that the transfer involved 67 properties. Treasury data separately showed the payments would settle claims by property owners from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the former Yugoslavia.
Masuka said 840 affected farms owned by Black farmers were being returned, as well as around 400 owned by White farmers, Bloomberg reported.
Colonial-era land ownership structure
Under British colonial rule, much of Zimbabwe’s fertile farmland was allocated to white settlers. By the time the country gained independence in 1980 after a long liberation war, about 4,000 white commercial farmers owned nearly half of the country’s productive farmland.
