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Swarms of Destruction
Millions of locusts devastating vegetation and crops in East Africa
By Godfrey Olukya | VOL.12 April ·2020-03-31

Desert locusts devour a tree (GODFREY OLUKYA)

They arrive in their millions like a dangerous cloud - darkening the sky and bringing fear, anger and despair to East Africa.

Voracious desert locusts have, in the past several weeks, gone on an eating rampage in countries in the region, including Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

They are reportedly devastating large quantities of food crops, cash crops, tree and vegetation at large. Those countries, with help from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), are making efforts to destroy the locusts, most notably through aerial spaying.

Biggest locust swarm in 25 years

The current locust invasion, according to FAO, started in Yemen and Somalia, where the locusts started laying eggs last year. They then spread to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. The organization said that due to lack of resources in Yemen and Somalia, it was not easy to monitor or deter them from laying eggs and multiplying in big numbers before moving to other countries.

"A cyclone that swept through northeast Somalia and east Ethiopia brought heavy rains to the area, creating ideal conditions for the insects to breed," said Keith Cressman, FAO's senior locust forecasting officer.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said there is a link between climate change and the unprecedented locust crisis in East Africa. "Warmer seas mean more cyclones, generating the perfect breeding ground for locusts. Today the swarms are as big as major cities and it's getting worse by the day," he said.

In early February, FAO announced that desert locusts were destroying tens of thousands of hectares of crops and grazing land in Northeast and East Africa in the worst invasion in 25 years. It warned that a dangerous situation was facing the regions.

After they had multiplied and spread within Somalia on February 2, the country declared a state of national emergency.

Back in December 28, 2019, the first swarm of locusts crossed the border into Kenya from Somalia. Since then they have destroyed food crops and vegetation. In Kenya, according to FAO, large swarms, up to 60 km long and 40 km wide, invaded all the country's northern counties and some central areas, and in less than a month, caused substantial damage to crops.

According to Mohamad Adbi, Governor of Wajir County, one of those affected, the desert locusts have damaged 470,000 acres (190,202 hectares) of crops and 741,000 acres (299,872 hectares) of vegetation.

Fast movers

Since they entered Kenya, the country has been spraying the locusts with insecticide. According to China’s Xinhua News Agency, in early March, FAO donated three aircrafts to boost Kenya’s fight against desert locusts that have spread to 26 counties in the country.

Tobias Takavarasha, FAO Representative to Kenya, said that the aircrafts will help intensify aerial and ground desert locust control activities.

"We hope the donation will help Kenya upscale response actions during the current level three emergency," Takavarasha said.

The donation brings the total aircrafts delivered to the country to five. Takavarasha hailed donors for their response to the desert locust menace that is affecting Kenya and other countries in the region.

Kenyan farmers like James Okulo are in despair after the swarm’s swather of destruction.

"I lost all my crops to the locusts. Within one day my 5-acre garden of maize had been destroyed," said Okulo.

Moving swiftly on their ruinous path, the first swarms crossed in to Uganda from Kenya a week later.

Ugandan Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Vincent Ssempijja said the locusts were first sighted on February 9.

"They were then sighted in two districts, but by February 20, they were in over 20 districts, rising to 27 districts by February 26," he said, indicating just how quickly the swarms move.

Ssempijja said that on sighting the desert locusts, the government immediately released funds to be used in fighting the scourge. Aircrafts were used to spray the locusts and 2,000 soldiers were hurriedly trained to use portable spraying equipment and sent to affected areas.

So far, authorities in Uganda have released 35 billion shillings ($9.5 million) to combat the swarms.

"We are continuously spraying the locusts. Some of the locusts we are receiving are those that survived from spraying in other areas," said Major General Sam Kavuma, Ugandan army commander in charge of spraying.

Ugandan farmers are in shock. "I lost all my cassava on 10 acres (4.04 hectares) of land when the locusts attacked our district," lamented Kenneth Okulle from Soroti District.

Continuing to move across the region, the swarm arrived in South Sudan on February 17. Onyoti Adigo Nyikiwec, Agriculture Minister of South Sudan, said while they were training people to deal with the locusts, the insects were smart.

"Locusts are like human beings. They send a reconnaissance swarm ahead of time to ensure that there is food and that the new area is good for breeding before bigger swarms move in," said Nyikiwec.

According to FAO Representative in South Sudan Meshack Malo, the locusts in the advance group were deep yellow, which means they are the ones that lay eggs. The last invasion of locusts in South Sudan took place 70 years ago.

Not content to rest, the swarm continued into the east Democratic Republic of the Congo on February 21. “They are destroying our food crops. They are not very many but they are destructive,” said local farmer Louis Longwa.

Food security threat

FAO said in a statement on February 24 that if the locusts are not brought under control by the start of the next planting and rainy season, farmers could see their crops decimated. A new generation of locusts were expected to hatch in February and with new swarms expected in early April, that would coincide with the next planting season.

The organization’s Director General Qu Dongyu said in an interview that the desert locust upsurge in the Horn of Africa and East Africa threatened to provoke a humanitarian crisis and appealed for urgent funding to tackle the outbreak in order to protect livelihoods and food security.

FAO has already released $15.4 million of the $76 million requested for the five countries affected most, but expects the needs will rise amid concerns that the outbreak will spread to other countries. FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service said the situation is extremely alarming and will be further exacerbated by new infestations, expected in April.

The invasion poses an unprecedented threat to food security in the entire subregion, where more than 19 million people in East Africa are already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, the organization said.

According to FAO and other experts, in a worst-case scenario, the invasion could become a plague if it is not contained quickly.

(Reporting from Kenya)

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What Are Desert Locusts?

The desert locust, whose scientific name is schistocerca gregoria, is a unique species of a swarming short-horned gluttonous grasshopper.

According to FAO experts, it is one of the most destructive migratory pests in the world - highly mobile and feeding on large quantities of any kind of green vegetation, including crops, pasture and fodder. A typical swarm can be made up of 150 million locusts per square km and is carried on the wind up to 150 km in one day. Even a very small 1-square-km locust swarm can eat the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people. The locust is an international trans-boundary pest which destroys agriculture and livelihoods of people in the countries they invade.

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