Tanzania: Stop Violent Forced Eviction Of The Maasai
Loliondo is a division in Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro district, in the Arusha region. It borders Serengeti National Park to the west, Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the south, and Kenya to the north. More than 70,000 Indigenous Maasai people are at risk of being displaced from their ancestral grazing lands to make way for a tourism operation. People are being evicted from their communal land as demarcation is ongoing despite a pending case at the East Africa Court of Justice. In 1992 the Tanzanian government leased the whole of the Loliondo division as a hunting block to a company from the United Arab Emirates.
The recent security forces operation is the fourth attempt to evict the Indigenous Maasai people who are pastoralists from their grazing site at Loliondo, in a dispute that has lasted more than a decade. Security forces were previously deployed in 2009, 2013 and 2017, when they evicted community members from four villages: Ololosokwan, Oloirien, Kirtalo and Arash. On 25 September 2018, the East African Court of Justice issued orders which included explicit directions that the state ceases from evicting the Maasai Indigenous people until the determination of a case that the community had filed against the state was completed. Nearly two weeks after the demarcation operation had already begun and the security forces were deployed to Loliondo, the court issued a notice of adjournment and postponed the delivery of its judgment to the September 2022 session.
The arrested persons include: Molongo Daniel Paschal, Albert Kiseya Selembo, Simeli Parmwati, Lekayoko Parmwati, Sapati Parmwati Sirikoti, Ingoi Olkedenyi Kanjwel, Sangau Morongeti Ngiminiso, Morijoi Ngoisa Parmati, Morongeti Meeki Masako, Kamabatai Lulu, Moloimeti Yohana Saing’EU, Ndirango Senge Laisier, Joel Clemes Lessonu, Simon Naiam Orosikiria, Damiani Rago Laiza, Mathew Kursas Njausi, Taleng’o Twambei Leshoko, Kijoolu Kakenya Olojiloji, Shengena Joseph Killel, Kelvin Shaso Nairoti, Lekerenga, Fred Victor, Wilson Tiuwa Kilong, James Memusi Taki and 5 others.