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The Tanzanian government is seizing livestock from indigenous Maasai nomads in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the latest attempt to pave the way for tourism and trophy hunting, a report released Thursday (26 January) said. the book said.
The government forcibly confiscated about 5,880 cows and 767 goats and sheep from the Maasai tribe in November and December last year, according to the latest information from the Oakland Institute, a US-based environmental think tank. Those who fail to pay have their livestock auctioned and forced to move.
“Livestock is central to the Maasai culture and livelihood,” Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Auckland Institute, told The Associated Press. “So losing a cow would be devastating for them. With this new tactic, the government’s clear goal is to drive them off their ancestral lands.”
The government is adamant that the move will pave the way for safari tourism, conservation and trophy hunting for lions, elephants and other notable large species, helping the country’s environmental and economic development. is “spontaneous” and suitable for a semi-nomadic lifestyle, he added.
But Mittal said the government’s claim that relocation would improve the Maasai’s life was “a blatant lie”. She added that the government “continues to prioritize tourism revenue above everything else, including human life.”
The government has been accused of denying access to essential health services, grazing lands, water and salt pans to force the Maasai to leave the area.
Sarangat Marko, a nomad from the village of Olorosocuang, Loliondo, where pastures have been cut down, worries about the future of his family.
“We are in a bowl of economic suicide,” he said. “A community dependent on livestock with no pasture. There are cows with no grass or water. Nomads were threatened and beaten… Where are they going and what are they going to feed their children?”
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Maasai villages occupy a small portion of the site within the commune of Lorion de he.
Last June, the Tanzanian government drew international criticism after it was accused of using violence against Maasai people protesting their eviction. However, when the district court ruled in favor of the eviction, the Maasai were forced to retreat.
The African Commission for Human Rights, normally based in Gambia, is currently in Tanzania seeking information on the human rights situation of indigenous peoples in the Loliondo and Ngorongoro regions.
Several human rights institutions in Tanzania have organized confidential, closed-door hearings with displaced victims and civil society organizations whose commissions are impartial and sufficiently separate from ongoing state-sponsored efforts. I am asking you to
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