Locusts Stealing Lives: Fears of farmers, herders in Somaliland as a plague looms

Muse Aarinte watched helplessly as a swarm of locusts swept into his village, devouring all the crops, bushes and even the leaves on the trees. Now he fears a plague is coming. Geerisa village, a remote, mud-and-thatch settlement in an arid, breakaway region of Somalia, survived the first outbreak of locusts in January. But Aarinte doesn’t think Geerisa’s 1,900 families will be so lucky when the second wave comes.

Since December, billions of desert locusts have swarmed eastern Africa, ravaging crops, decimating pasture and threatening the livelihoods of more than 20 million people who depend on farming and livestock for their survival.