7 yıl önce

Eviction of Maasai from Serengeti sparks controversy

Tanzania’s government says it's relocating the Maasai tribe in order to protect its national parks. Locals say the eviction is to make way for a Dubai-based hunting company.

File Photo AP

Evicted tribe members are trying to survive in dire conditions with a lack of basic needs, food, water and shelter.

Tanzanian government forces have been demolishing the homes and farms of the Maasai tribe near the Serengeti in the last few weeks in what authorities say is an effort to protect the national parks from overgrazing.

All farmsteads spreading over a 450-square kilometre area have been burned recently.

Hundreds of tribe members say they have been evicted from their ancestral homelands to make way for a Dubai-based hunting company.

“This is some sort of chaos. Our animals are going to die, it will become a disaster in Maasailand.” Tom Kairrung, a Maasai leader, said.

TRT World’s Dan Ashby has this report from the Serengeti.