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Locust Swarms Force Somalia To Declare A National Emergency
.jpg?ext=.jpg "Locust Swarms Force Somalia To Declare A National Emergency")
They're only between 0.5 to 3 inches long, but they have been wreaking havoc in East Africa, threatening the food supply and livelihood of one of the poorest regions in the world.
We're talking about locusts. Lots and lots of locusts!
According to the BBC, millions of locusts have been ravaging East Africa, eating away at vegetation and destroying crops across the region.
Things have become so bad that Somalia recently declared a national emergency due to the swarms of insects.
Infestation could lead to food shortage
Before the declaration, the country's Ministry of Agriculture announced that the swarms of locusts posed a "major threat to Somalia's fragile food security situation."
Locals have also said that some areas were so dense with flying insects that they could hardly see.
Now THAT is extremely scary!
The United Nations said that the swarms in Somalia and nearby Ethiopia are the largest recorded in the last 25 years and if uncontrolled could 'provoke a humanitarian crisis'.
The Desert Locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa could provoke a humanitarian crisis.The #locust invasion is the worst in decades to strike Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.?️@FAO Keith Cressman provides an update on the locust situation ?https://t.co/OHY9qDcNAu #ZeroHunger pic.twitter.com/UogmQg1FIW— FAO (@FAO) January 31, 2020
Other countries also facing similar issues
Neighbouring Kenya have also been fighting the locust problem with experts saying that the country has not experienced such a severe swarm in the last 70 years.
Other than Somalia, Pakistan also recently declared a national emergency due to locust infestation in the eastern part of the country.
According to National Geographic, locusts are usually solitary animals but converge in swarms with the right conditions.
A swarm of desert locusts (the kind usually found in Africa), can grow up to 1,200 square kilometres and can eat about 423 million pounds of plants each day.
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