Tanzania’s Masaai demand Indigenous rights in UN framework

Jonathan Mpute ole Pasha, national coordinator of the Maa Unity Agenda group, is surrounded by tear gas thrown by police to break up a small demonstration of Maasai rights activists outside the Tanzanian high commission in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Friday, ...NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania’s Maasai people, resisting government pressure to leave their ancestral homes in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, have presented their demands for Indigenous land rights to negotiators in Nairobi finalizing the proposed U.N. global biodiversity framework.

The appeal by the Masaai community of Loliando on Thursday follows a violent confrontation with Tanzanian security forces two weeks ago which forced many…