About 40,000 Masai tribesmen near the town of Loliondo in northern Tanzania could be facing eviction from their ancestral home by the end of the year in a deal brokered by the Tanzanian government.

The 1,500-square-kilometre area, roughly the size of Hong Kong, will be turned into a “wildlife corridor” for an Emirati hunting company catering to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

The Masai people say selling the land would directly or indirectly affect up to 80,000 people, because the area is crucial to their grazing livestock.

The government has promised to inject 1 billion shillings into social-economic development projects as compensation, but the offer has been rejected by the Masai people.

Samwel Nangiria, coordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group, told the Guardian he felt betrayed. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”

Avaaz, a global activist group, launched an online petition against the land deal that has collected more than 2.3 million signatures. The international outcry prompted Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete to vow on Sunday to never to evict the Masai people from their ancestral land.

However, Nangiria is still wary. He noted that Kikwete said on Twitter that there had never been a plan to evict the Maasai, which isn't true.

"He should have said we had the plan but we dropped the plan," Nangire said. "The plan was there for sure. But he said there was no plan. He should put in writing the commitment. That is what everyone is waiting for."

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