Egyptian prosecutors have started investigations into the alleged squandering by former officials of LE1 billion allocated to the development of Nubia, located in southern Egypt.
The report was filed by the Egyptian Nubian Association for Lawyers against former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and former agriculture ministers Youssef Wali and Amin Abaza.
The report also accuses an official from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization of involvement in the case. The organization had given Egypt more than LE1 billion to build villages for Nubian people in the Nasser Lake area.
The funds, the report claims, were given to the cabinet of ministers, who commissioned the Ministry of Agriculture to spend them according to the terms of the agreement.
The report argues that only a few of the projects mentioned in the agreement were implemented, the total cost of which only constitutes a small portion of the allocated funds.
The report further says the agreement stated the projects should be implemented within a maximum of five years, starting in 2003. However, this interval has elapsed without the agreement being fully implemented.
