Locust swarms the size of cities have been ravaging large parts of East Africa, the Middle East and southwestern Asia, devastating cropland and threatening the livelihoods of millions of people.
Billions of the voracious insects have descended on Kenya in the worst outbreak in 70 years, are threatening Ethiopia’s vital grain regions after devastating Somalia and Djibouti, and have this week reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war.
Millions of people are at risk of starvation if the locusts destroy any more crops.
The fears are the swarms are only going to get larger and increase by up to 500-times by June, when drier weather begins, experts have said.
The locusts can travel up to 150km in a day, eating their weight in food. In northeast Kenya, the UN reported spotting a swarm that was three times the size of New York City (2400sq km).
On average, a swarm that size containing about 96 billion locusts can consume enough food in one day to feed 90 million people.
In Kenya and Ethiopia, small planes are flying low over affected areas to spray pesticides in what experts call the only effective control.
Somalia’s agriculture ministry has called the outbreak a national emergency and major threat to the country’s fragile food security, saying the “uncommonly large” locust swarms are consuming huge amounts of crops.
In swarms the size of major cities, the locusts also have affected parts of Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea, whose agriculture ministry says both the military and general public have been deployed to combat them.
“Being at the centre of the locust swarms is like watching a gang of bad people slashing your crops and any vegetation. Swarms of locust decimate every green vegetation, including crops and trees,” Omude Emoru, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator with the International Rescue Committee, told Newsweek. “This leaves smallholder agricultural farmers and livestock keepers devastated.”
In South Sudan, thousands of the insects were spotted inside the country, Agriculture Minister Onyoti Adigo told reporters. Authorities will try to control the outbreak, he added.
The locusts have been seen in Eastern Equatoria state near the borders with Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.
The situation in those three countries “remains extremely alarming,” the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said in its latest Locust Watch update.
Locusts also have reached Sudan, Eritrea, Tanzania and more recently Uganda. The soil in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria has a sandy nature that allows the locusts to lay eggs easily, said Meshack Malo, country representative with the FAO.
At this stage “if we are not able to deal with them … it will be a problem,” he said.
South Sudan is even less prepared than other countries in the region for a locust outbreak, and its people are arguably more vulnerable. More than five million people are severely food insecure, the UN humanitarian office says in its latest assessment, and some 860,000 children are malnourished.
Five years of civil war shattered South Sudan’s economy, and lingering insecurity since a 2018 peace deal continues to endanger humanitarians trying to distribute aid. An aid worker was shot dead just last week.
The locusts have travelled across the region in swarms the size of major cities. Experts say their only effective control is aerial spraying with pesticides, but UN and local authorities have said more aircraft and pesticides are required.
The U.N. has said $76 million is needed immediately. US. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit to Ethiopia said the US would donate another $8 million to the effort. That follows an earlier $800,000.
The number of overall locusts could grow up to 500 times by June, when drier weather begins, experts have said.
Until then, the fear is that more rains in the coming weeks will bring fresh vegetation to feed a new generation of the voracious insects.
Feature photo: Locusts swarm across a highway at Lerata village, near Archers Post in Samburu county, approximately 300km north of Kenyan capital, Nairobi (Photo: Tony Karumba/AFP)
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