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African Union enters the fray on the Loliondo saga
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1 December 2009
The African Commission’s working group on indigenous population communities in Africa (WGIP) has sent a written request to President Jakaya Kikwete to intervene on reports of alleged evictions and destruction of property of Maasai pastoral communities within the Loliondo Game Controlled Area in Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region in July this year But according to reports from the 46th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights currently taking place in Banjul, Gambia, the Kikwete administration is yet to respond to the letter dated August 6, 2009 and signed by WGIP chairperson Musa Nagary Bitaye.
 Read more |
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Forest People May Lose Home in Kenyan Plan
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19 November 2009
Since time immemorial, the Ogiek have been Kenya’s traditional forest dwellers. They have stalked antelope with homemade bows, made medicine from leaves and trapped bees to produce honey, the golden elixir of the woods. They have struggled to survive the press of modernity, and many times they have been persecuted, driven from their forests and belittled as “dorobo,” a word meaning roughly people with no cattle. Somehow, they have always managed to survive. But now they may soon be homeless
Read more (The New York Times) |
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Kenya: Ogiek threatened with eviction
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1 October 2009
IWGIA is very concerned about the serious threats that the forthcoming evictions of people from the Mau Forest in western Kenya might have for the livelihoods and future survival of the indigenous Ogiek people. The Ogiek people – originally a hunter/gatherer people – number around 20.000 people and have for hundreds of years been living in the Mau Forest. They have lived a traditional livelihood and have lived in harmony with the forest.
Read more |
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Embassy of Denmark focuses on evictions in Loliondo as Ereto is handed over
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25 September
Ambassador Bjarne H. Sørensen formally handed over 15 years of Danish support to the Maasai as part of the ERETO celebrations, but it was overshadowed by recent events that have seen the pastoralists being forcefully evicted from their homes, and their bomas burned down. ERETO has assisted in supplying water, animal health-care, restocking livestock, women’s economic groups and HIV/AIDS awareness, also in Loliondo.
Read more (um.dk) |
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Kenya: Ogiek Community - Mau forest is Our Ancestral Home
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Mau Forest Complex remains our home and there is no price or compensation which can please or appease our ancestors. It is in the interest of all us to protect our mother earth and moreso the remains of our great grandfathers and the generations to come. Exchanging it for compensation is calling a curse for us all. This day is for Kenyans and the world at large to know that we are not about to leave our ancestral home. Mau is our home and we shall resist any move to get us out of our home. From time immemorial, we have coexisted with our forest. We love and adore our livelihood and therefore we are conservators of this forest. We did not come from any other district and those who came found us enjoying the blessings of fauna and flora i.e the trees and the animals thereof. The taskforce which was set by the Rt.Hon.Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister of Republic of Kenya had strong terms of reference to take into consideration the interests of forest dwellers like Ogiek. It is unfortunate that the taskforce did not take the Ogiek issues into consideration. Threats have been looming in the air that all the people in Mau forest must leave for conservation to take place.
Read the full Ogiek Memo here (doc) |
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IPACC summit on human rights in Africa
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12 June 2009
Bamako, Mali - IPACC's West African member, Tin Hinan will be hosting a major IPACC summit on human rights of indigenous peoples from 19 to 23 July 2009 in Bamako, Mali. The pan-African conference for indigenous activists will focus on two major themes: how can activists work within the African Charter and African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to ensure the recognition and full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and secondly how can IPACC help strengthen the voice and strategy of indigenous women on the continent. The event will be supported by the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights with some financial support from IWGIA - International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
Read more (indigenousportal.com) |
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Nigeria: Shell pays $15.5m over killing
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9 June 2009
The oil giant Shell has agreed to pay $15.5m (£9.6m) in settlement of a legal action in which it was accused of having collaborated in the execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other leaders of the Ogoni tribe of southern Nigeria. The settlement, reached on the eve of the trial in a federal court in New York, was one of the largest payouts agreed by a multinational corporation charged with human rights violations.
Read more |
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Persecuted pygmies driven from forest home
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8 June 2009
They are among the country's earliest inhabitants, but a combination of war, prejudice and marginalisation has forced the pygmies of the southeastern Katanga province onto the fringes of Congolese society. Known locally as Batembo, thousands of pygmies once lived in the forests of Katanga's Pweto territory - only 400-500 families remain today. Many others fled or were killed during the 2003-2006 destruction wrought by the militia leader Gédéon Kyungu Mutanga and his Mai Mai soldiers. After a 19-month trial, a Katanga military court on March 5 found Mutanga guilty of crimes against humanity, insurgency, and terrorism in the so called "triangle of death" which includes Pweto.
Read more (africafiles.org) |
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Kenya: Ogiek says no to planned eviction
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13 May 2009
More than 60 Ogiek leaders representing various clans recently met in Nakuru and opposed the intended eviction from their ancestral land of Mau forest by the Grand Coalition Government. In a recent statement by the President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, that all settlers living in Mau forest will be removed for the purpose of conservation has resulted in a high tension as the Ogiek couldn't believe such remarks.
Read more (press release doc) |
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Niger - IWGIA brief
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29 April 2009
AN UPDATE ON THE SITUATION OF THE PASTORALIST POPULATIONS
The situation of the Peul
A very serious problem faced by the Peul pastoralists is violent attacks from the sedentary farming communities. Quite a lot of Peul pastoralists are being killed and no proper actions are being taken to punish those responsible.
The situation in northern Niger
It was very difficult to get information about the situation in northern Niger where a Tuareg rebellion is going on. The Agadez area continues to be in a state of emergency whereby it is impossible for human rights organizations and the media to get access to the area.
Read the full IWGIA brief (doc) |
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People from Niger. From IWGIA photo archive. |
Africa: Deforestation and Indigenous Rights
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21 April 2009
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, Central Africa), the provinces of Northern and Southern Kivu are amongst those most affected by deforestation and soil degradation, writes Joseph Itongwa from the Shirika La Bambuti organization. It is important to note, says Joseph, that while the indigenous 'Pygmy' peoples of DRC are not by any means responsible for this deforestation, they are nevertheless the ones who suffer from it the most.
Read more (climatefrontlines.org) |
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People: Efe. Photographer: Espen Wæhle. From IWGIA photo archive. |
Kenyan Police Attack Samburu Villages
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17 April 2009
Kenyan government forces have launched a series of ongoing assaults on the indigenous Samburu people in the remote northern region of the country, using helicopter gunships and armed ground forces to attack several villages. The police, claiming to be after cattle bandits, strafed unarmed villagers from the air and used clubs to beat villagers on the ground. The attacks have so far displaced more than 2,000 Samburu, a cattle-herding people closely related to the Maasai, and government forces confiscated all the communities’ cattle, leaving them with no food source. According to Raphael Letimelo, member of parliament for the Samburu district, the assaults are not finished yet. “There have been reports and threats of possible mass executions and removal from of indigenous people from their traditional homelands throughout the Samburu District in the next few weeks,” he said. On March 5, unidentified assailants in Nairobi executed two prominent Kenyan human rights activists who planned to publicize the situation in Samburu District.
Read more (culturalsurvival.org) |
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Police fire at Samburu community |
Kenya: Raging Mau forest controversy
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2nd April 2009
The Mau forest is home to the Ogiek hunter gatherers and an important dry season grazing area for the pastoralists in addition to being the source of the umbilical cord for the vast Maasai Mara and Serengeti ecosystems. The ecology and wildlife in the twin national reserves in Kenya and Tanzania respectively depend on the Mara River for their survival and the two countries depend on these areas for income from tourism. It is estimated that the destruction of the Mau Complex is not stopped, Kenya stands to lose $300 million in GDP. Due to deforestation, there is also reduction in rainfall levels in the catchment area.
Read more (pdf) |
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Mau forest complex |
Tanzania: Urgent alert!
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19th March 2009
IWGIA has recently been informed by local partners in Tanzania that a government operation aimed at forcefully removing pastoralists from the Kilosa district in the Morogoro Region in southern Tanzania started on the 29.1.2009. The Tanzanian government wants to remove all pastoralists from Kilosa district and, according to some sources, the whole of Morogoro Region, and force them to other areas of Tanzania. Such areas have though, according to IWGIA local partners as yet not been specified, and the affected families do not know where to go to. The targeted pastoralists are mainly Parakuiyo Maasai but also Barbaig and Sukuma pastoralists. The forceful evictions take place in a context of overall anti-pastoralist government policies where permanent settlement of nomadic pastoralists is emphasized. The operation is causing gross human rights violations towards pastoralists.
Read more (pdf) |
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Pastoralists: The Maasai Foto: Diana Vinding |
Mbororos - a forgotten crisis
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February 2009
The Mbororo people living in the central African Republic and the Northern and Eastern Regions of Cameroon have during the last decade been victims of armed attacks by robbers form the Central African Republic and Chad. Mbororo settlements have been attacked and children and women taken hostages and bartered for heavy ransoms ranging from 5 to 10 million francs CFA (10,000 to 20,000 USD). If ransoms are not paid the children are killed and many Mbororo families have lost their children. The serious insecurity situation has led to poverty among the Mbororo pastoralists and many Mbororo people have been displaced. Urgent action is required on this matter.
Watch the video about it in French
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Victims of armed attacks. |
Congo: NGO worried about disarmament of Hutu militias on behalf of pigmies
24th January 2009
The NGO “ Programme d’Intégration et de Développement du Peuple Pygmée au Kivu/ PIDP- SHIRIKA LA BAMBUTI” which works for the promotion and protection of indigenous pigmies’ rights in North Kivu, South Kivu and Maniema provinces, is really worried about the consequences of the joint military operation of FARDC and APR for the disarmament of Hutu militias, on the indigenous pigmies.
Read more
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