Zimbabwe's white farmers to receive first compensation payments over land invasions

This is the first payment under a deal aimed at helping Zimbabwe mend its relations with the West.

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It is the first payment to be made under the 2020 compensation agreement signed between the state and the local white farmers in which Zimbabwe committed to pay $3.5bn (£2.6bn) for seized farmland.

Thousands of white farmers were forced from their land, often violently, between 2000 and 2001.

The seizures were meant to redress colonial-era land grabs but contributed to the country's economic decline and ruined relations with the West.

The payment announced on Wednesday will cover the first 378 farms, out of a total of 740, for which compensation had been approved.