Due to claims of abuse, the World Bank suspends a $150 million Tanzania tourism subsidy

Following claims of killings and evictions by rangers last year, the World Bank has stopped making fresh payments from a $150 million investment intended to extend a national park in Southern Tanzania, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

According to the World Bank’s independent complaints process, two anonymous complainants have accused rangers from the Ruaha National Park of torturing and seizing cattle from local people, forcing them to disappear, and engaging in extrajudicial killings.

A representative for the World Bank stated in a statement, “The World Bank is deeply concerned about the allegations of abuse and injustice related to the… project in Tanzania.”

“We have therefore decided to suspend further disbursement of funds with immediate effect.”

The claims are untrue, according to government spokeswoman Mobhare Matinyi, but the government is still looking “to see if there was any misconduct from any staff so that it takes appropriate action”.

He added that the loan’s $25 million final installment was stopped.

Human rights activists have criticized a number of Tanzanian government efforts to increase tourism, particularly in the north of the nation where thousands of Maasai people have been forced from their ancestral lands.

In a report published last year, the Oakland Institute, a think tank with headquarters in California, accused park rangers in Ruaha of sexual assault and claimed that local populations throughout Tanzania were footing the bill for tourism-related expenses purportedly made in the name of environmental preservation.

The government claims that growing the tourism industry is essential to economic growth and that it has fairly compensated those who have been forced from their houses.

The World Bank project is scheduled to conclude in February 2025, having been approved by its board in 2017.