Tanzania Government Denies Plan to Evict Maasai for Lion Hunting
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Tanzanian Natural Resources Minster Lazaro Nyalandu said reports are false that the government would evict 40,000 ethnic Maasai from traditional lands being sold to rich Middle Eastern investors.
Maasai elders started an online petition last year that garnered 2.3 million signatures to stop what they described as an attempt by the state to remove “thousands of families” from their ancestral homes to bring in tourists to hunt for lions and leopards. The East African nation’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, this week said on his Twitter account there’s never been a plan to forcibly relocate the pastoralist community.