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Locust Invasion Threatens Somali Farmers with Starvation

Somali boys attempt to fend off desert locusts as they fly in a grazing land on the outskirt of Dusamareb in Galmudug region, Somalia December 21, 2019. (Reuters)
Somali boys attempt to fend off desert locusts as they fly in a grazing land on the outskirt of Dusamareb in Galmudug region, Somalia December 21, 2019. (Reuters)
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Locust Invasion Threatens Somali Farmers with Starvation

Somali boys attempt to fend off desert locusts as they fly in a grazing land on the outskirt of Dusamareb in Galmudug region, Somalia December 21, 2019. (Reuters)
Somali boys attempt to fend off desert locusts as they fly in a grazing land on the outskirt of Dusamareb in Galmudug region, Somalia December 21, 2019. (Reuters)

Somali farmers on Saturday urged their government and the international community to help protect their crops from an invasion of locusts that is leaving many unable to feed their families.

“Locusts already ate our grazing area so we are now fighting to save at least our farm, where we planted watermelon and beans. We aren’t able to protect them and we call on the Somali government and international community to help us,” said Jamad Mohamed, a farmer in Dhusamareb, the provincial capital of Galgadud, a semi-autonomous region.

The insects have already destroyed 70,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of farmland in Somalia and neighboring Ethiopia, threatening food supplies in both countries in the worst locust invasion in 70 years, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday.

For Jirow Qorhere, another Somali farmer in the region, it is too late. He has lost all his crops to the insects.

“Locusts devoured the whole area and have now reached our farm to eat our plants, as you can see,” Qorhere said. “This is the end, we have nothing left to feed our children and we aren’t even able to buy from the market.”

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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.