Tanzania forcibly relocating indigenous Maasai: HRW | Politics News

Seeking to support conservation and tourism, Tanzania has been expelling people from ancestral lands.

Tanzania has forcibly expelled the indigenous Maasai from their ancestral lands, says a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The report, published on Wednesday, concluded that the Tanzanian government intends to relocate more than 82,000 people from land it has set aside for “conservation and tourism purposes”.

The program, launched in 2022, aims to move people living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), home to the Maasai for generations, to the village of Msomera, which is around 600 km (370 miles) away.

Amid the pressure, tension arose between authorities and the nomadic community, sometimes resulting in deadly clashes.

HRW interviewed almost 100 people, including community members who had already moved to Msomera village and others facing relocation, between August 2022 and December 2023.

Although Tanzania’s nomadic community has been allowed to live within some national parks, authorities say as the population increases, it encroaches on wildlife habitats.

Rapes and violence

The resulting report concluded that the government “did not seek the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous Maasai residents in the area” regarding its relocation plan.

Residents also described to HRW “violations of their rights to land, education, health and compensation and attacks on critics of the relocation process.”

They also claim that violence was used during the relocation process, with “government-employed rangers attacking and beating residents with impunity.”

HRW documented 13 incidents of beatings by rangers between September 2022 and July 2023.

A Msomera resident told HRW that those who spoke out against the relocation faced threats and intimidation from rangers and security forces.

“You are not allowed to say anything,” the resident said, adding that people have “fear in their hearts.”

Juliana Nnoko, senior women and land researcher at HRW, said the Tanzanian government needs to respect the rights of indigenous Maasai communities.

“[It] it is an ethical obligation as well as a legal one,” she said. “The government must urgently reconsider its approach to ensuring the survival, well-being and dignity of the Maasai people, whom this relocation process is putting at serious risk.”

The Tanzanian government has consistently maintained that its relocation scheme complies with the country’s rights laws.