Tanzanian Government Abducts Maasai Villagers in an Unconscionable Attack on Indigenous Land Defenders

• Human rights conditions in northern Tanzania have deteriorated sharply since August, as the Tanzanian government carries out a coordinated campaign of violence and arrests against the Indigenous Maasai.
• In Ngorongoro, five Maasai were arrested last week; Over 30 community members have been arrested over the last two months; In neighboring Loliondo, thousands of livestock have been confiscated.
• The government is pressuring Maasai to leave the area to reach its goal of expanding the number of safari tourists and trophy hunters to eight million by 2030.
• The last arbitrary arrests unfolded in Arusha as Tanzania hosted the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, centered on the theme of “enhancing good governance and empowering communities through inclusivity, trust and opportunities for all.”

Oakland, CA – On the night of October 6, the Tanzanian government forcefully abducted five Maasai men, Nangei Meitaya, Salangat Makko, Ezekiel Kishau, Dickson and Thadeus Clamian, holding them under arbitrary detention at the Arusha Central Police Station. While the individuals were released the following night, these targeted arrests are a dangerous escalation in the government’s systemic oppression of the Indigenous Maasai people.

Since August, human rights conditions in northern Tanzania have worsened sharply as the state carries out a wave of coordinated violence and arrests against the Maasai. In the Ngorongoro Division, authorities have detained more than 30 community members, while confiscations of livestock have intensified in neighboring Loliondo. Local advocates state these actions are part of a systemic campaign to suppress peaceful dissent and dismantle civil society, through economic restrictions, intimidation, and unlawful incarceration of Maasai pastoralists.

“Far from being an isolated incident, this is a calculated campaign of intimidation. Driven by its goal to attract eight million safari tourists by 2030, the Tanzanian government is escalating pressure to evict the Maasai from their ancestral lands. As a result, community leaders have been driven into hiding once again, describing a rapidly deteriorating situation across the region,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.

While detained, the victims were deprived access to their families or legal counsel. Four of those arrested are employees of the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a local NGO dedicated to the “sustainable empowerment of Indigenous pastoralist women and girls in northern Tanzania.” Furthermore, authorities searched the homes of other staff members without due process.

“The abduction and subsequent detention of our community members is one of the many incidents of lawless targeting of the Maasai people in Ngorongoro – a deliberate campaign to instill fear and censorship, designed to make state dispossession and displacement easy. When a regime normalizes abductions and uses public hospitals as hunting grounds, it reveals a complete breakdown of common sense and basic humanity,” said Joseph Moses Oleshangay, a prominent Maasai human rights lawyer and activist from the Ngorongoro District in Tanzania.

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The arbitrary arrests unfolded in Arusha as Tanzania hosted the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, centered on the theme of “enhancing good governance and empowering communities through inclusivity, trust and opportunities for all.” This international gathering of parliamentarians from around the world comes a year after the rigged October 2025 national elections, during which the security forces violently suppressed pro-democracy demonstrations and killed thousands of civilians. Meanwhile, in March 2026, President Hassan accepted recommendations from sham land commissions advocating for the widespread eviction of Maasai communities from their ancestral lands in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) and Loliondo.

The government plans to drastically reduce Maasai presence in the NCA to expand safari tourism and trophy hunting. To pressure residents to leave, the government has stopped basic medical, education, and water services while restricting access to grazing land for pastoralists. Massive mobilizations by the Maasai against this forced resettlement have exposed the government’s lie that people are leaving willingly.

“As international visitors plan safari tours to Tanzania, they must recognize that tourism revenues are inadvertently financing the government’s violent attack on Maasai communities whose ancestral lands are being stolen in plain sight,” concluded Mittal.

Source: oaklandinstitute.org