Tanapa guards reduce village to ashes over ‘infiltration

ABOUT 210 families at Ipota village at Ikuba Ward in Mlele District , Katavi Region have been rendered homeless after Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) guards with other law enforcers there, jointly destroyed their houses by setting them ablaze for allegedly being.

The torching exercise that was carried out for two consecutive days caused great human disasters and humiliations to the residents including children, women, pregnant women and patients and forced them to spend their nights under trees, besides braving the current torrential rains pounding the area.

Reports from the scene of incident had it that Tanapa’s defense force and the other lawenforcers based at Kibaoni Police Post in Mlele District ambushed the village and set fire on their houses on Friday.

Acting Ipota Village Chairman, Mr Soguta Masanja told reporters who visited the village that about 210 families have been now rendered homeless after the guards and their counterparts torched down their houses .

“The victims for two consecutive nights sought refuge under trees where they spent their nights and braved heavy rains that have started pounding several parts of the region” said Mr Masanja .

“The incident has wreaked the victims psychologically after their houses were set on fire. They also beat them without considering some to be children, pregnant women and patients,” pointed out the village chairman.

In his explanation, Mr Masanja said that there has been a feud of border line crisis between Tanapa Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and the residents for quite sometimes.