Tanzania gov’t evicting 82,000 Maasai from UNESCO site

NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Tanzania is forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Maasai from their ancestral lands, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday, claiming that government rangers beat some members of the community with impunity.

Long-standing tensions between the authorities and the nomadic community have sometimes resulted in deadly clashes, after the government launched a program beginning in 2022 to relocate some 82,000 people from the world-renowned Ngorongoro Conservation Area to Handeni district, roughly 600 kilometers away, by 2027, HRW said.

But the scheme, which the government says is to conserve the UNESCO World Heritage site from human encroachment but which HRW says will "use their land for conservation and tourism purposes," has come under growing international criticism with the World Bank and the European Union pulling funding.

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

The report noted "government-employed rangers assaulting and beating residents with impunity," with community members describing how they were targeted, and listing 13 alleged beatings between September 2022 and July 2023.