An Amnesty International report released Tuesday outlined how a UAE-affiliated trophy hunting company is involved in the forced evictions of Massai people in Tanzania.

The report documents that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE’s prime minister and a member of the ruling royal family, is linked to trophy hunting company Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC). It also describes how OBC has assisted Tanzanian security forces in systematically removing Maasai Indigenous communities by permitting those in power to camp on OBC property during all forced evictions.

Community members from Loliondo villages affected by forced evictions, as well as present and former OBC employees, testified in the report that OBC was involved in every forced eviction that took place in Loliondo. They informed Amnesty International that during the forced evictions, OBC-branded vehicles and known OBC representatives were present. Additionally, they said that Tanzania’s security forces camped out on OBC property before moving into Loliondo villages with the help of OBC employees and vehicles during each eviction.

Amnesty International has based these findings on previous research conducted in 2022. The 2022 investigation states that current domestic law is insufficient to safeguard indigenous peoples’ rights to land under international law. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights requires states to uphold peoples’ rights to property, culture, and the advancement of their economies and societies on a regional scale.

All of Loliondo’s land was registered under the Village Land Act 1999, a piece of legislation that regulates village land administration and guarantees equal rights to access, use, and control over land. In order for the state to purchase village land for public use, customary rights of possession must be resolved with the village council’s permission. This is meant to keep non-villagers from purchasing village land.

The minister in charge of wildlife is also empowered by Section 16 of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2009 to designate any land in Tanzania as a game-controlled area by means of a court decree or notice.

According to a statement provided to Cultural Survival by Nailejileji Tipap (Maasai), who works with the Pastoralist Indigenous NGO Forum:

Due to the expansion of new game reserves, the government has been encroaching into this seemingly bare land, sometimes going beyond into village land. A number of human rights violations have followed. In 2022, the government demarcated an area in Loliondo with the purpose of creating the new game control area known as Pololet. This is one of the dry season grazing lands. But now the community is subjected to poverty because they lack access to grazing land and their livestock is confiscated by game rangers.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa said that to maintain indigenous rights “the state must reverse its land acquisition decision in Loliondo and ensure that no land acquisition or evictions proceed unless the Maasai People give their free, prior, and informed consent through a process of genuine consultations.”