Dar es Salaam, 13 December, 2023 / 9:30 pm (ACI Africa).
Catholic Bishops in Tanzania have vowed to support members of the Maasai community amid controversies around their eviction from what Tanzanian community considers its ancestral land, but which is in Wildlife Conservancy Areas in the Northern part of the country.
Thousands of Maasai pastoralists have been asked to move out of Loliondo and Ngorongoro Conservation Area to pave the way for the government to lease the land to Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC), a company based in the United Arab Emirates, to reportedly create elite tourism.
In a Monday, December 11 video message, the Secretary General of Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC), Fr. Charles Kitima, says, “Our Bishops have said that until the last Maasai leaves, we will continue to suffer with the Maasais there.”
Fr. Kitima underscores the presence of the Church in the affected areas through educational and health facilities, as well as pastoral agents, including Catholic Priests and women Religious.
“Our hospital in Endulen shall not be closed. The Priests are in the Parish there; the hospitals are there, the schools are there, the Sisters are there … The plane that we send to the park with humanitarian aid will not be stopped,” the Secretary General of TEC says.