Last month, we shared the struggle of Ngorongoro, Tanzania, which covers the Indigenous Maasai People’s continued resistance to government-led displacement of their people from their ancestral homelands. As mentioned, this case is by far not one of its kind. On June 10th, the Maasai pastoralists of Loliondo, on the northern side of Ngorongoro, faced dreadful violence by military troops who opened fire in order to evict the Indigenous people from their territory.
The government of Tanzania has violently started evicting the Maasai pastoralists of Loliondo from their lands to make way for trophy hunting and elite tourism. The tensions have been ongoing for more than a decade, as the Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that organizes hunting safaris for the royal family of Dubai, continues to lobby the Tanzanian government to turn the grazing lands and villages of the Maasai into a protected game area.
On June 7th, without informing the public, a massive paramilitary group of police, park rangers and military forces arrived in Loliondo. The following day, a fleet of police vehicles entered the town of Wasso, to demarcate a 1,500 km2 area as a game reserve. In response, the Maasai gathered in several locations to protest the police invasion. The state’s military forces responded to the protests with live bullets.
31 people were injured in the shootings, and several others have been arrested or detained. Maasai leaders and NGO staff are being hunted for and remain in hiding. Hundreds of people have crossed the border to Kenya, seeking security and medical care for the injured.
These horrendous events are taking place despite the ruling of the East African Court of Justice from 2018, which prohibited the Tanzanian government from evicting the Maasai from their lands, seizing their livestock, or destroying their property, in four villages. The ongoing Indigenous rights abuses in several parts of Africa are systemic and stem from colonial power structures and the affiliated ideology of fortress conservation.
“This is our territory, our life. We will stay, and die on our lands. We are not going anywhere even if the government has to kill all of us. We are also Tanzanians but lack the human rights of fellow citizens.” – Maasai man from Loliondo (name withheld for security reasons)
The cruel violence is ongoing in the villages of Loliondo. Land is Life has responded to several requests from Kenya with our Indigenous-Led Security Fund, to support the fleeing Maasai with medical costs, food and drinking water, as well as in finding safe spaces to stay. Land is Life joins in the demands on the Government of Tanzania to halt the violent evictions immediately, and calls on the international community to urgently intervene.
“Samia Suluhu, President of Tanzania, as a mother and woman, how can you let this happen? Young children are running in the bush, terrified, as they can’t go home. Women are hiding in the face of this horror. Loliondo should not be protected for the use of a luxury tourism corporation but for the Maasai who are the custodians of these lands and have the right to decide on their use. We are asking you, Samia Suluhu, to urgently end this nightmare and to recognize and respect the territorial rights of the Maasai. We demand justice for our sisters and brothers in Loliondo!” – Maasai woman from Kenya (name withheld for security reasons)