from ALLOYCE KIMBUNGA in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania Bureau
DAR-ES-SALAAM, (CAJ News) – TANZANIA is under criticism for allegedly resorting to ill-treatment, excessive force, arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as forced evictions against members of the Maasai indigenous community.
Amnesty International has released a report on how authorities forcibly evicted the minority community from Loliondo, in northern Ngorongoro district of Arusha region in June last year.
The report, titled, “We have lost everything: Forced evictions of the Maasai in Loliondo, Tanzania”, reveals this left 70 000 people without access to the grazing lands that their livelihoods depended on.
“This crucial report reveals how Tanzania’s security forces resorted to the use of brutal force when evicting the Maasai from 1 500 square kilometres of their ancestral lands in Loliondo,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa.
“It also highlights total disregard for due process and free prior and informed consent of the affected Maasai people in the decision-making process that was used to justify the forced evictions.”
The security forces allegedly shot and teargassed members of the Maasai who resisted forced eviction, injuring at least 40 people.
One police officer was killed by as yet unidentified persons, while an 84-year-old, a member of the Maasai, is still missing.
Some 27 Maasai were detained and charged in relation to the killing of the police officer.
The authorities also arrested 132 individuals for allegedly being in the country illegally.
They have since been discharged due to a lack of evidence.
Amnesty noted the Maasai were subjected to forced evictions in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022.
“The Tanzania authorities must urgently recognise and fulfil the rights of the Maasai to their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources,” Chagutah said.
– CAJ News