Marta Baraibar

The East Africa Hazards Watch supports tracking extreme events such as drought, cyclones, pests (desert locust), heavy rainfall, floods or crop failures, which are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change. About 90% of the disasters in East Africa are due to weather, climate hazards, leaving the region to be one of the most vulnerable to extreme events.

Correction to: Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0835-8, published online 30 June 2020.

To the Editor – From the end of 2019 to early 2020, a desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) outbreak across several East African countries posed a serious risk to food security and livelihoods. A second wave is currently active and threatening the region’s agropastoral areas. Although desert locusts have been here since biblical times, recent intense outbreaks can be linked to anthropogenic climate change and the increased frequency of extreme weather events1,2,3.