"Indigenous Nama descendants in Richtersveld, northwest of South Africa, are preparing a lawsuit to reclaim ancestral land, as their community battles poverty while diamond mining companies continue to profit from the area. Footage captured in the coastal town of Port Nolloth on Thursday, shows homes bordering abandoned mining fields, as former mine workers resort to digging in their own backyards following years of decline in the industry. "We are trying to use our own resources to survive, and then they come and shoot at us," shared one of the miners. Elsewhere, a voluntary task team convened to prepare the legal documents, hoping the case will lift the community out of its dire circumstances. "We know what the settlement agreement means to us, there are millions and because it has not being implemented, it is not happening and people cannot escape poverty. We don’t need to beg," expressed Ann Friedberg, a member of the task team. The community, which secured ownership of its ancestral land in 2003, agreed in 2007 to a deal giving them 49 percent of mineral rights with state-owned miner Alexkor retaining 51 percent. Nearly two decades on, families say they have received far less than the promised R300 million ($16 million, 15 million euros) settlement for 4,000 beneficiaries. "I think there is power in ownership of land and this being your communal land. And I think that's a really important lesson that land is everything," underlined Alex Hotz, an extractivism coordinator, during an interview on Wednesday. The Richtersveld case is expected to be heard at the Land Claims Court in Randburg in early February."