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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a modest open space within in the of Peru Amazon when he noticed sounds coming closer through the dense woodland.

He became aware he was hemmed in, and froze.

“One stood, directing using an projectile,” he recalls. “And somehow he became aware that I was present and I began to run.”

He had come face to face the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—residing in the modest village of Nueva Oceania—had been virtually a local to these wandering people, who reject contact with outsiders.

An updated report by a rights group states there are at least 196 of what it calls “remote communities” in existence globally. The group is thought to be the most numerous. The report says 50% of these communities may be decimated over the coming ten years should administrations fail to take additional to protect them.

It claims the greatest threats stem from logging, mining or drilling for petroleum. Isolated tribes are extremely susceptible to basic disease—therefore, the report says a threat is caused by contact with evangelical missionaries and online personalities in pursuit of attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania more and more, based on accounts from residents.

The village is a fishermen's hamlet of seven or eight households, located high on the banks of the local river deep within the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the nearest village by canoe.

This region is not recognised as a preserved zone for isolated tribes, and timber firms function here.

Tomas reports that, sometimes, the noise of industrial tools can be heard day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are witnessing their forest disturbed and ruined.

In Nueva Oceania, residents say they are conflicted. They dread the tribal weapons but they also possess profound respect for their “relatives” who live in the woodland and wish to protect them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we can't alter their way of life. This is why we maintain our separation,” says Tomas.

Inhabitants in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the harm to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the risk of aggression and the possibility that deforestation crews might subject the tribe to illnesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the community, the group appeared again. A young mother, a woman with a young child, was in the forest picking fruit when she heard them.

“We heard shouting, cries from individuals, a large number of them. As though there was a crowd shouting,” she informed us.

This marked the first instance she had come across the group and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still pounding from terror.

“Since exist deforestation crews and operations cutting down the jungle they are fleeing, perhaps out of fear and they come close to us,” she stated. “We don't know how they will behave to us. That's what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were confronted by the group while catching fish. A single person was struck by an arrow to the stomach. He lived, but the other person was discovered dead after several days with multiple arrow wounds in his physique.

Authorities in Peru maintains a policy of non-contact with secluded communities, establishing it as prohibited to start contact with them.

The strategy was first adopted in a nearby nation subsequent to prolonged of advocacy by indigenous rights groups, who observed that early exposure with remote tribes could lead to entire communities being eliminated by illness, hardship and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country came into contact with the world outside, half of their community died within a short period. A decade later, the Muruhanua people suffered the similar destiny.

“Remote tribes are very susceptible—in terms of health, any interaction might introduce diseases, and even the simplest ones might eliminate them,” explains Issrail Aquisse from a Peruvian indigenous rights group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or intrusion may be extremely detrimental to their life and health as a group.”

For local residents of {