A Human Rights Watch report says Tanzania is forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Maasai from their ancestral lands, claiming that government rangers beat some members of the community with impunity.
The human rights NGO has reported this Wednesday that long-standing tensions between the authorities and the nomadic Maasai community have sometimes resulted in deadly clashes, after the government launched a programme beginning in 2022 to relocate some 82,000 people from the world-renowned Ngorongoro Conservation Area to Handeni district - roughly 600 kilometres away - by 2027.
The government says the scheme aims to conserve the UNESCO World Heritage site from human encroachment, but HRW says the authorities will "use their land for conservation and tourism purposes".
The programme 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.
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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.
"He was just walking, and they just punished him," one man told HRW, describing how rangers stopped his 35-year-old friend en route to a funeral and made the man kneel before clobbering him with a stick, leaving him wounded.
There was no hope of legal redress, he told HRW, as you "go to the same police who have beaten the guy, so you can't get any aid."
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"Rangers are like people who are above the law."
The report also alleges that the Tanzanian government failed to provide free and fair consent to the relocation, describing violations of rights to land, education, and health.
While the nomadic community has historically been allowed to live within some national parks, the authorities say growing populations encroach on wildlife habitats.
The government has consistently maintained its relocation scheme observes Tanzania's rights laws.
Funding suspended
The relocation programme has prompted the World Bank to suspend a payment towards a €130 million conservation fund in April and the European Union is also revoking Tanzania's eligibility for some €16 million in similar funding.
HRW has found that "the government has systematically silenced critics ... contributing to a climate of fear".
"You're not allowed to say anything," said one person quoted by HRW who has already relocated to Msomera.
People have "fear in their hearts".
(With newswires)
