Swarms of locusts of historic magnitude, totaling several billion insects, have been devastating large areas of East Africa for several weeks, following extreme climatic variations which could prove catastrophic for an already stricken region. by drought and floods. Thick clouds of hungry locusts spread from Ethiopia and Somalia to Kenya, where the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that only one of these swarms covered an area of 2,400 km2, the size of Luxembourg.
Such a swarm would contain some 200 billion locusts - and each devours the equivalent of its own weight (two grams) each day, making a total of 400,000 tonnes of food. It is capable of traveling 150 kilometers per day and devastating the livelihoods of rural populations in their frantic race for food and reproduction. Ethiopia and Somalia had not seen swarms of locusts of such magnitude in twenty-five years, and Kenya had not faced a locust threat of such strength for seventy years, according to FAO.
A major food safety problem
If nothing is done, the number of insect pests "could be multiplied by 500 by the month of June", invading South Sudan and Uganda, devastating crops in its path, in areas already very vulnerable, warned the UN agency. This could cause “a major food security problem,” said Guleid Artan of the Climate Forecast and Applications Center (ICPAC), part of the regional organization Igad, on Friday during a press conference in Nairobi. .
For him, the current invasion is the latest symptom of a series of extreme climatic variations in East Africa in 2019, which started with a severe drought and ended with devastating rains and floods, which caused hundreds of dead.
Chemicals to disperse?
If the threat of locusts has not been brought under control by the start of the next planting season around March, farmers could see their fields wiped out. Faced with the threat of giant swarms that darken the sky and devastate the vegetation, Kenyans resorted to all possible artisanal means to hunt them, waving sticks, hitting cans or even firing gunshots . In vain.
Kenya has five planes that disperse pesticides on swarms, said Stephen Njoka, director of the subregional body that monitors locusts in East Africa (the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa), based in Nairobi. It ensures that the chemicals used are not harmful to human health and that the authorities are doing their best to limit damage to other insects, including pollinators.
Crickets, crickets ... Pasta with insects 100% "made in France"Delicacies
Lyon: How about eating insects for dinner?
- Somalia
- Ethiopia
- Weather
- World
- Famine
- Kenya