East Africa is suffering its worst invasion of desert locusts

Swarms of desert locusts have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into eastern and northern Kenya, posing a threat to food production and grazing land. The Horn of Africa has been hit by the worst invasion of desert locusts in 25 years, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. The invasion poses an unprecedented threat to food security in the entire sub region, where more than 19 million people in East Africa are already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity, the agency said. In Kenya, it is the worst invasion in 70 years, and the government is spending $5 million to manage the swarms of locust and prevent spreading. Invasions of desert locusts are irregular in the region, the last instance occurred in 2007 at a much smaller scale. "This current invasion of desert locust is significantly larger in magnitude and scale than previously experienced in Kenya and across East Africa," said Dr. Stephen Njoka, the Director General of Desert Locust Control Organization. Irregular weather and climate conditions in 2019, including heavy rains between October and December, are suspected to have contributed to the spread of locusts in the region. A cyclone that swept through northeastern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia in December, bringing heavy rains to the area, created ideal conditions for the insects to breed for the next six months, said Keith Cressman, FAO's senior locust forecasting officer. Large swarm areas of northeastern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia are not being detected or treated, leaving the area vulnerable to new generations of locusts. If locusts are left untreated by control measures, swarms can potentially grow 400 times larger by June, Cressman said. Unexpected and unpredictable rainfall in northern Kenya that carried into January also continues to enable favorable breeding ground. As large swarms continue to move into Kenya and multiply, "you have a recipe for the situation to deteriorate further," said Cressman.