The World Bank has suspended funding for a US$150 million ($120 million) tourism project in Tanzania following allegations of rapes, evictions and murders.
Ruaha National Park was due to double in size as part of the project, but critics say the expansion has led to widespread abuse.
The bank began investigating last year after being accused of complicity in the abuses.
On Tuesday, he said he was “deeply concerned” about the allegations.
“We have therefore decided to suspend further disbursement of funds with immediate effect,” said a spokesperson for the bank, which provides loans to developing countries.
The Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project was launched in 2017 in an effort to improve the “management of natural resources and tourism assets” in southern Tanzania, including in several national parks, the bank said.
At least $100 million has already been disbursed for the project, according to the US-based think tank Oakland Institute.
Work to expand the boundaries of Ruaha National Park, a 12,950 km2 (5,000 square mile) conservation area that is home to lions and other wildlife, has come under heavy scrutiny.
For more than a year, the Oakland Institute has been denouncing alleged development-related abuses that, although financed by the bank, were committed by Tanzanian authorities.
The Tanzanian government did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.
Last September, the Oakland Institute said its research team interviewed several villagers who alleged they were raped by Regrow-funded rangers.
In its publication, the Oakland Institute also pointed to reports from a Tanzanian congressman and a community organization that rangers had allegedly killed villagers.
The think tank said government agencies seized livestock en masse in an attempt to drive villagers off their land and that the Tanzanian government “blatantly” violated bank procedures by planning to evict villagers without a formal plan to resettle them.
The bank “turned a blind eye to horrific abuses committed in communities,” the report alleged.
The following month, the bank announced an investigation into the allegations.
After the bank announced it was suspending Regrow’s funding on Tuesday, Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, said the “long-awaited” decision was a “crucial step toward accountability and justice.”
“This sends a resounding message to the Tanzanian government that there are consequences for the rampant rights abuses taking place across the country to boost tourism.”
The think tank said residents who were “victims of serious human rights violations” should now receive “adequate” and “immediate” reparations.
He also stated that the bank must prevent the forced evictions of other residents.
The bank said it had “robust policies” in place to avoid any potential “harmful impacts” and that it would “continue to work with local authorities and communities to ensure that all projects supported by the Bank protect and improve the lives of Tanzanians”.
Allegations of abuse are not limited to tourism projects in the south – in recent years groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the government of forcibly expelling thousands of Tanzanians from the Maasai ethnic group in order to develop a hunting reserve in the north of Ngorongoro. region.
The government has already denied the accusations.
