BERLIN (AP) — Germany is officially recognizing the colonial-era massacre of tens of thousands of people in Namibia as genocide and has agreed to provide funding to help the communities affected.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made the announcement in a series of tweets.

"We cannot change the past, but we can look to the future together," Maas said.

But it is stopping short of formal reparations, which some have demanded.

The move announced Friday is the result of more than five years of talks about killings between 1904 and 1908 when Germany was the southern African country's colonial ruler.

Germany said it will provide $1.3 billion for projects that will occur over a 30-year span, the Associated Press reported.

Some groups protested Friday in the Namibian capital amid complaints the accord did not go far enough.

Historians say German Gen. Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to put down an uprising by the Herero people in 1904, instructed his troops to wipe out the entire tribe.

About 65,000 Herero were killed and at least 10,000 Nama.