Exposé on Tanzania’s long-running illicit Ngorongoro wildlife trafficking to Dubai
20 July 2024 — When you run a search for Sharjah Safari Park on X, the results will shock you. You’ll find laid bare the inside story of what the Tanzanian government and the Dubai royal family are doing to the animal population in Ngorongoro, secretly airlifting tons of live animals to Dubai year in and year out. It is alarming.
Whistleblowers Tanzania Leaks tweeted, “Sharjah Safari Park is being filled with our wildlife at an alarming rate. The OBC in Loliondo game reserve continues to smuggle many animals weekly: Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Antelope.”
In this piece, I want to set off the alarm bells to pry into these animals’ conditions and the legal implications that may likely go against the whole idea behind wildlife conservation.
Now there’s one thing the world may have missed, and a special alert to the National Geographical Society, World Wildlife Fund, and Wildlife Conservation Society, I ask, in your estimation, from a legal and conservation standpoint, how does annihilating animal species benefit wildlife conservation?
If an exposé in The New Arab magazine is anything to go by wildlife shipped to the UAE from Namibia and Zimbabwe has been known to seemingly vanish into thin air, with no plausible explanation given.
Read their article Revealed: The Unknown Fate of the Wild African Elephants at UAE’s Al-Ain Zoo.
So why is Ortello Business Corporation (OBC) still airlifting animals to the UAE? Are these animals not procreating? Why do they continue to ship them out of their natural habitat?
One might speculate that these animals are perhaps not surviving the harsh desert conditions so the quick-fix solution, I’d imagine, is to replace them. Is that it? And if so, does it not–especially, deplete endangered animal species?
I’m sure experts in this field will be able to investigate and make a fair assessment. But from a layman’s point of view, none of this makes sense.
Not only has the Dubai royal family been given hunting concessions, but since the 1990s Ngorongoro animals have been shipped from Loliondo to Dubai on what is believed to be an underhanded deal between a succession of Tanzanian heads of state (and their inner circle of enablers), and the Dubai royal family, the Maktoums.
Up until now, as I write this article, animals are still being airlifted to Dubai from an airstrip in Loliondo, the most recent reported shipment being just about a couple of weeks ago.
Again, I ask myself a simple question.
After all these years of shipping animals to the UAE to create this artificial Sharjah Safari Park (among others), why is there still a need to continue ferrying animals to Dubai?
Are these animals not reproducing, and if so what would be the reason?
Whatever way I try to mull over this, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb. If ultimately these animals are dying in the desert, then after all these years, surely traffickers are well aware of the ramifications of moving these animals to an inhospitable environment, and for that — I’m sure you will agree — they ought to be held accountable.
Where to find information
Susanna Nordlund has written extensively on the shenanigans that go down in the Ngorongoro, she has details of land theft, human rights violations, government lies, and organizations and individuals involved. I respect her and truly appreciate her work.
Check out Susanna’s blog here.
Joseph Oleshangay hails from the Maasai community in Tanzania and is a human rights advocate and winner of the 2023 Weimar Human Rights Award. Oleshangay is a respected elder in his community and has up-to-the-minute information on what is happening in Ngorongoro. I respect and appreciate his contribution to his Indigenous community and Tanzanians, across the board.
Be sure to follow Joseph on X, here.
Maria Sarungi is a prominent media personality and activist at the forefront of the movement for change in Tanzania. She publishes extensively on the situation on the ground in Tanzania and whistleblows on the atrocities committed by the government on a plethora of issues, including the plight of the Maasai and Ngorongoro. In my book, Maria is a lifesaver to whom Tanzanians who crave independence are indebted. She is a pioneer for change and is fully committed to the cause.
Follow Maria on X here.
New Updates…
After the above article was published, any new developments will be posted in this section below. Be sure to come back for regular updates.
26th July 2024
Summary
Posts surfaced in numerous tweets on X revealing a large cargo jet had landed in Loliondo, which resulted in payment networks for entry into the national park being shut down and tourist activity ground to a halt for several hours. The plane took off with what has been described as a large cargo of animals at 2 am on the 27th.
Social media posts
In this tweet, a tour operator describes in Swahili how convoys of tour operator vehicles had been prevented from entering the park, and the underlying reason given appertained to the cargo aircraft and the evacuation of live animals. Click here.
In this tweet, the poster mentions networks being shut down and vehicles being barred from entering the national park due to the ongoing activity, that an Arab plane had arrived to pick up a large cargo of animals. Click here.
This article is written by Diego Muller, follow Diego on X (formerly Twitter)
