Major win for Indigenous Nama people: RWE withdraws from Hyphen hydrogen project on ancestral land in Namibia
By Staff Reporter
Copyright web
Business Reporter
THE German energy company RWE has pulled out of its agreement to purchase ammonia for export to Europe from Hyphen Hydrogen Energy Ltd. (Hyphen) project in Namibia, on ancestral Nama land.
This decision was confirmed in a response to an inquiry made by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), representing the Indigenous Nama people, together with its international partners: the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Forensic Architecture (FA), and Minority Rights Group International (MRG).
Hyphen intends to build large-scale ammonia production infrastructure across a 4,000 km² concession inside Tsau||Khaeb National Park on ancestral Nama land. This same area was once declared “Sperrgebiet” (restricted area) by German colonisers, and access continues to be restricted for the Nama people and the general public to this day. Hyphen is a British-German joint venture registered in Namibia, with the German company Enertrag SE among its shareholders.
RWE had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hyphen in 2022 concerning the purchase of ammonia. The company’s recent decision to withdraw follows an open letter sent on 2 April 2025, in which the organisations urged RWE to pull out until the Indigenous people’s rights of the Nama are fully respected.
Maboss Johannes Ortmann, NTLA’s Project Coordinator for genocide reparations, said that the letter informed RWE about the perpetuation of colonial patterns through German orders of land dispossession and extermination, a genocide that led to the decimation of 50% of the Nama people, as well as the destruction of a biodiversity hotspot.
He added that the move highlights how today’s extractive practices perpetuate colonial patterns on the same land.
“The Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA) calls on the Namibian government to fulfill its international human rights obligations and to guarantee the right to self-determination and Free, Prior and Informed Consent in every project planned on their ancestral land. The government must no longer plan such projects over the heads of affected communities,” Ortmann said.
Picture for illustrative purposes only. Photo: File
