Maasai shelter under the acacia trees in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Photo / Getty Images
Maasai shelter under the acacia trees in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Photo / Getty Images
Over the past two weeks Tanzania's Maasai people claim they have been targeted by teargas, live bullets, threats and violence in a bid to clear them from parts of the Serengeti National Park.
The cattle farmers claim it is in connection with a planned development in the Ngorongoro district fora luxury Safari resort near the village of Ololosokwani. The area under dispute is a 1500 square kilometre range that has been earmarked for a game reserve with links to Emirati royalty, according to Aljazeera.
Since June 10 the at least thirty Maasai protestors have been injured during clashes between locals and Tanzanian authorities.
700 members of the security forces were deployed to the area to erect boundaries and clear people from the reserve.
Video clips from the confrontations show protesters displaying their wounds.
"They started shooting at us like wild animals," one Maasai elder told reporters.
Fighting reportedly broke out when Maasai were met by game wardens and police at the pasture lands.
Photo reportedly from the standoff outside Loliondo village in Ngorongoro, Tanzania. Photo / Twitter
"We had gone to graze our cows when we met police officers on our way who started attacking us with live bullets," said one of those injured in the confrontation.
Authorities in Tanzania claim that the zone within the National Park is being protected from grazing, as it is crucial for wildebeest breeding who rely on the watering holes.
The population of Maasai and their cattle have been increasing in the National Parks putting pressure on many of the protected species which share the areas.
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) June 15, 2022
However, human rights groups have been critical of Tanzania's approach to "fortress conservation" and resettlement plans for Maasai. Others are more cynical about the motives of resettlement plans, pointing to recent concessions to tourists businesses in the area
"The government is executing a plan to resettle Maasai in many areas. But all to give room for exclusive hunting business," human rights lawyer Joseph Moses Oleshangay, told the Financial Times.
There are around 400,000 Maasai pastoralists who graze their cattle in the Serengeti National Park. The park takes its name from the Maasai for 'endless grassland'. Ngorongoro is a heartland for Maasai settlements, which stretch from central Kenya to northern Tanzania.
Last Wednesday, the UN condemned the violence saying that up to 150,000 Maasai face displacement.
"We are deeply alarmed at reports of use of live ammunition and tear gas by Tanzanian security forces," said a statement from the UN Human Rights Council.
They said that the decision to ringfence the area was made on 6 June, behind closed doors, without Maasai input and with "no genuine efforts to consult them".
The timing of the showdown and eviction by force was further condemned given a pending legal challenge.
This week on 22 June the East African Court of Justice is expected to oversee a legal challenge to the eviction of the Maasai from their land in this area.
Maasai shelter under the acacia trees in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Photo / Getty Images
In a statement to the Financial Times the Tanzanian government claimed that they were not aware of any injuries during the protest. They defended the decision to clear the 1500sqkm reserve as a protection of the country's natural resources and eco-tourism.
"We earn revenue from the conservancy by attracting tourists. This enables us to build our roads, health system and buy medicine. Also it has helped us in our budget," said Gerson Msigwa, a Tanzanian government spokesman. "We have not seen people who have been injured in our hospitals. No people have been killed in Loliondo. People are spreading incitements, which we won't allow as a government."
Luxury Reserve Planned
The area under contention has a hunting concession belonging to the Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), a luxury big-game tourism company with links to the United Arab Emirates' royal family.
The company runs an airfield in Ngorongoro for trophy hunters to fly into.
On Saturday the OBC told the Financial Times that there was "no eviction in Loliondo".
"Due to population growth in the area and the effect of climate change the government decided to de-gazette the area and gave 2,500 square kilometres to the community and the remaining 1,500 square kilometres is reserved due to the fact that the area is crucial," said the company.
"There is no land scarcity in Tanzania [. . .] so relocation is possible."
The UN Human Rights Commission condemned the decision to move the Maasai was not a question of land scarcity, saying the "physical and cultural survival" was dependent on their access to the Ngorongoro.
The statement said that the eviction was being done "in the name of 'nature conservation', safari tourism and trophy hunting" and ignored the relationship that the Maasai with the lands and their stewardship role in protecting biodiversity.
