GERMANY is set to pay €1.1bn (£940m) to Namibia which will be used to fund communities affected by the genocide of the Herero-Nama people, it was announced on Thursday. The payout has been described by Berlin as “a gesture of reconciliation” between the two nations, but avoided the term reparations over fears that it could set a precedent for other countries to bring claims. Tens of thousands of men, women and children from the Herero and Nama tribes were massacred by German forces between 1904 and 1908 in what has been described as the 20th century’s first genocide. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said today that the acknowledgement meant that there could be a “common path towards real reconciliation in the memory of the victims.”