Rights watchdog accuses the World Bank of complicity in rights abuses around Tanzanian national park

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A rights watchdog is accusing the World Bank of enabling the Tanzanian government’s violent expansion of a national park through financing from the global lender. The World Bank has failed to hold Tanzanian authorities accountable for serious rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and sexual assaults relating to the expansion of Ruaha National Park in the south of the East African country, according to a new report by the Oakland Institute. The report by the California-based watchdog, which regularly monitors rights abuses against Indigenous communities, is the result of an investigation that found evidence of wrongdoing by park rangers funded partly through a $150 million project by the World Bank.