Tanzania allows Maasai communities to live in certain national parks and nature reserves such as the famous Ngorongoro Crater, a UNESCO World Heritage tourist site. But incidents with Maasai herders have multiplied since the authorities claim to want to limit their presence in certain areas.
Since 1959, the population living in Ngorongoro has increased from 8,000 to more than 100,000, while the livestock population has increased from around 260,000 head in 2017 to more than one million today. The Maasai and their herds find themselves in competition with wildlife and “Ngorongoro is losing itself”President Samia Suluhu Hassan said last year.
The government claims to want to protect 1,500 km² of the 4,000 km² of this area near the Serengeti Park from all human activity. Last weekend, clashes opposed to Loliondo, 125 kilometers north of Ngorongoro, police and Maasai who opposed the installation of “beacons” separating areas of human habitat and wild animals. A police officer was killed in these incidents.
The authorities propose a program of “voluntary relocation” qualified as“evictions” by human rights activists. According to the prefect of the Arusha region, 296 families have agreed to go and live in the Handeni region, 600 kilometers to the south. This program divides the Maasai: “This eviction was never voluntary for the people of Ngorongoro”lawyer and human rights activist Joseph Oleshangay told AFP.
“There are no evictions here, all the people who leave have registered voluntarily and the government is helping them”
John Mongella, regional prefectat AFP
The Tanzanian government launched on June 22, 2022 an operation against the “illegal immigrants” in Loliondo, in the north of the country, suspecting Kenyan Maasai of crossing the border to help the local community. Interior Minister Hamad Masauni last week called for tough measures to curb “the influx of illegal immigrants, most of whom drove their herds (…) into the protected area of Loliondo”. The Maasai community lives astride Kenya and Tanzania. This region has been an area of tension for decades, with Kenya and Tanzania fighting over tourists who come to visit the animal parks and Mount Kilimanjaro, accessible from both sides of the border.