Responding to reports of the arrest of 39 members of the Maasai community and parliamentarian Emmanuel Lekishon Shangai in Endulen in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and their unlawful detention in unknown locations without access to their lawyers, Amnesty International Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah said:

“Tanzanian authorities must end this new wave of arrests and detentions, which constitute renewed repression against the Maasai Indigenous Community that is standing up for their rights to their ancestral lands and essential services such as schools, health facilities and water projects in Ngorongoro.”  

“We call on the government to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the 40 arrested community members, grant them access to their lawyers, and due process, including being promptly brought before court to challenge the legality of their detention.”

“The latest security operation comes against a backdrop of threats to forcibly evict the Indigenous Maasai from their ancestral lands in Ngorongoro in a dispute that has lasted over a decade.”

“The Maasai live in fear of being forcibly evicted from Ngorongoro to make way for a game reserve and a protected conservation area on which they have not been consulted or given free prior and informed consent.”