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Top U.S. Aid Chief Warns of Locust Devastation in East Africa

“You really have to go back to decades ago in the U.S., to Dust Bowl days, to understand just how devastating this can be.”

By , a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy.
Locusts take flight from ground vegetation as young girls run toward their cattle at Larisoro village near Archers Post, Kenya, on Jan. 21.
Locusts take flight from ground vegetation as young girls run toward their cattle at Larisoro village near Archers Post, Kenya, on Jan. 21.
Locusts take flight from ground vegetation as young girls run toward their cattle at Larisoro village near Archers Post, Kenya, on Jan. 21. TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images

One of the world’s most impoverished regions faces yet another crisis. Swarms of voracious desert locusts are descending on East Africa in alarming numbers not seen in decades. Climate shocks—droughts followed by an unusually high number of cyclones—created the perfect storm of conditions for the tiny critters to breed and travel across the region from the Arabian Peninsula en masse, devouring virtually everything in their path.

Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer

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