Tanzania debunks Amnesty’s claim on Maasai evictions
Written by Tunde Adeyemi on June 6, 2023
Tanzania has refuted accusations of forcefully relocating the Maasai people from their ancestral land near the Serengeti National Park.
The country’s justice minister, Damas Ndumbaro described as “misleading” a report by Amnesty International that accused security forces of repeatedly using excessive force to evict the Maasai in northern Loliondo region.
The rights group said police carried out arbitrary arrests and shot at people.
The minister said government had only sought to demarcate a game-controlled area, established by the German colonial government.
He said local people had invaded the area after independence in 1961 to an extent that it could no longer be used for conservation, and the government had donated about two-thirds of the land to the communities there.
The minister said the police had acted calmly despite locals confronting them with crude weapons.
defended the government over accusations of forcefully relocating the Maasai people from their ancestral land near the Serengeti National Park.
