Locust invasion in East Africa: five questions to understand

Text by: François-Damien Bourgery Follow

For more than two months, the Horn of Africa has faced a massive invasion of locusts that has spread, raising fears of a serious food crisis.

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East Africa had not experienced such an invasion for decades. For more than two months, gigantic swarms of locusts have descended on its land and ravaged its crops and pastures. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), only one of these swarms is as large as Luxembourg (2,400 km2). Pushed by the winds, these locust clouds can easily travel 150 km in a single day. And these insects about 7 cm long have a fierce appetite: each of them eats the equivalent of its weight daily. A swarm of 200 billion locusts is therefore able to devour 400,000 tonnes of food every day.

#Kenya #Locusts swarm in Isiolo area. pic.twitter.com/dB1J0eIQxG

A race against the clock is underway to stem the phenomenon. Because this extraordinary locust invasion makes fear of a food crisis for millions of already vulnerable inhabitants. “ There are 13 million people in these affected countries who have difficulty accessing food. Ten million of these people live in areas affected by locusts, "said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock earlier this week during a press conference at the organization's headquarters.

■ How did the locusts proliferate?

According to the researchers, two factors explain this proliferation: climate change and political instability. It all starts in spring 2018 when abundant rains fall on the "empty quarter" of the Arabian peninsula after the formation of a cyclone over the Indian Ocean. The heat and humidity are the ideal conditions for the reproduction of the desert locust, which is not detected because of the inaccessibility of the area, explains in an interview to Le Monde Keith Cressman, specialist in locust invasions at FAO. A second cyclone in October 2018 maintains this reproduction. The number of locusts is multiplied by 8,000.

If the desert locust is rather of solitary nature when the density of its population is normal, it changes behavior as soon as it increases, to form dense and very mobile swarms. At the beginning of 2019, part of this population thus migrated to Yemen where the civil war prevented control operations. Reproduction cycles are linked. Three months are enough for a locust larva to become an adult capable of reproducing.

The first invasions hit the Horn of Africa in June 2019 through northern Somalia before reaching Ethiopia. Both countries manage to contain them. But at the beginning of December, thanks to a new cyclone, showers fell on Somalia and caused floods to Ethiopia, leading to new reproductions. " The situation is getting out of control, " says World Keith Cressman of FAO. " It is certain that the succession of cyclones is at the origin of the crisis, " says the expert. In 2019 alone, nine were recorded in the Indian Ocean.

“ Normally, in December, the locusts that were on a part of the Horn of Africa should have left for the most part towards the Arabian Peninsula. Except that this year, they stayed because of the favorable climatic conditions ”, also notes Cyril Ferrand, head of the resilience team for East Africa of the FAO, in the columns of Jeune Afrique . But as in Yemen, political instability in Somalia has also complicated the management of proliferation.

■ Which countries are affected?

Ethiopia and Somalia were therefore the first countries affected by these locust invasions which then reached Kenya, Djibouti and Eritrea. Somalia declared a national emergency in early February due to the risks to food security in the country. The government wants to contain the swarms before the April harvest.

Since Sunday, February 9, swarms have also been reported in Uganda and Tanzania . They are now threatening to spread to South Sudan, Burundi and the DRC. In Burundi, the ministry in charge of Agriculture and Livestock said it was prepared to face this " plague ".

🦗 #DesertLocust Crisis

It is an unprecedented threat in the Greater #HornofAfrica and beyond. #Ethiopia, #Kenya and #Somalia are primarily affected countries but @FAO is responding at scale also in #Djibouti and #Eritrea

👉 https://t.co/g6dL9rkBeI#ZeroHunger pic.twitter.com/1osxNQVBaX

■ What are the consequences for the affected countries?

Locusts consume the green part of the plants, i.e. the leaves and not the grains. In the affected countries, the consequences are currently limited for farmers, as the crops had already been harvested. Breeders, on the other hand, are hit hard by these invasions which destroy the livelihoods of their animals. In Kenya, which has not undergone such an invasion for 70 years according to the FAO, the impact of this crisis is all the more important since the pastoralists have just suffered three years of drought. In this country where agriculture represents 34% of the GDP, the entire economy is threatened.

■ How is this invasion combated?

It can already be prevented by spraying synthetic pesticides, explains to Parisian Cyril Piou, a CIRAD researcher. Once the locusts are there, we wait until the morning when they have settled down to sleep, to eradicate them thanks to insecticides spread by plane or from 4x4. In Uganda, the authorities say they have made available 36,000 liters of spray material to infected areas and mobilize 2,000 soldiers. But the extent of the phenomenon complicates surveillance and intervention by air, warns Keith Cressman, of the FAO.

► Read also: Locust invasion in Kenya: the hunt for swarms is organized

The UN calls for international aid to end the crisis as soon as possible. FAO estimated at the end of January that $ 76 million was needed to combat these invasions. So far, only $ 20 million has been raised, said Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs earlier this week. Time is running out. The locust population can be multiplied by twenty every three months. " At the end of six months, there is a population which is multiplied by 400 ", alarms Cyril Ferrand in Jeune Afrique .

#DesertLocust: @FAO needs $ 76M NOW to help end the plague. Do nothing and @WFP will need 15x that ($ 1.1B) to feed 13M + people devastated by the loss of their crops and livelihoods! Which do you think is a better investment ?! #Kenya #Ethiopia #Somalia #Uganda #Eritrea #Djibouti pic.twitter.com/gw4Phz8KlD

■ Can the situation worsen?

If the threat is not stopped by the start of the next planting season around March, farmers could see their fields devastated. The period will coincide with the appearance of a new generation of billions of locusts that can feed on these seeds and young plants.

" In 2003-2005, a similar episode in Mauritania created a famine such that 10 years later, we could still measure the impacts of rural migration, " notes Cyril Piou, from CIRAD.

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