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TheNewYorkTimes.com: Loss of Fertile Land Fuels ‘Looming Crisis’ Across Africa

Posted by: Berhane Habtemariam

Date: Monday, 31 July 2017

Loss of Fertile Land Fuels
‘Looming Crisis’ Across Africa

Climate change, soil degradation and rising wealth are shrinking the amount
of usable land in Africa. But the number of people who need it is rising fast.

A man from the Pokot ethnic group illegally grazing cattle on Ol Maisor Ranch in Laikipia, Kenya. Hundreds of Pokot and Samburu people have invaded the ranch, cutting or breaking perimeter fences to graze thousands of cattle, goats and sheep. Credit Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
 
 

LAIKIPIA, Kenya — The two elders, wearing weather-beaten cowboy hats with the strings cinched under their chins, stood at the edge of an empty farm, covering their mouths in disbelief.

Their homes — neat wooden cabins — had been smashed open. All their cattle had been stolen. So had their chickens. House after house stood vacant, without another soul around. It was as if some huge force had barreled into the village and swept away all the life.

Sioyia Lesinko Lekisio, one of the elders, had no doubts who did this. Swarms of herders from another county had invaded, attacking any farm or cattle ranch in their path, big or small, stealing livestock, ransacking homes and shooting people with high-powered assault rifles.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” he said. “They want our land.”

Kenya has a land problem. Africa itself has a land problem. The continent seems so vast and the land so open. The awesome sense of space is an inextricable part of the beauty here — the unadulterated vistas, the endless land. But in a way, that is an illusion.

Population swells, climate change, soil degradation, erosion, poaching, global food prices and even the benefits of affluence are exerting incredible pressure on African land. They are fueling conflicts across the continent, from Nigeria in the west to Kenya in the east — including here in Laikipia, a wildlife haven and one of Kenya’s most beautiful areas...............

 

 
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6ይ ክፋል: ማዕበል ስርሒት ፈንቅል - የካቲት 1990 - ሰነዳዊት ፊልም| sirihit fenkil 1990 - part 6 - ERi-TV Documentary

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