VNR Locust in Ethiopia and Somalia

In the Horn of Africa, the worst affected area by the locust infestation, there is an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods as swarms increase in Ethiopia and Somalia and continue to move south to Kenya where they have spread to 14 counties, just kilometers away from Uganda and South Sudan. Somalia is the first country in the region to declare a state of emergency over the infestation. As of now, the upsurge is contained to three countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. This is the worst locust situation Somalia and Ethiopia have seen in 25 years. Last time Kenya was affected with an infestation at this scale was 70 years ago.

In these three countries, food crops and livestock forage are being heavily impacted. The swarms are uncommonly large and can consume huge amounts of crops and forage.

Across all of East Africa region, 19 million people are already in severe acute food insecurity in the region and experts warned of a high risk of further deterioration of the situation as this is a key season for pastoralists and farmers. In Kenya and Somalia, it is the most important cropping season of the year. While this is not the key cropping season in Ethiopia, it is crucial to the regeneration of pastures and forage vegetation for pastoralists and their livestock.

Locust activity in the broader Red Sea area and in South West Asia is also a source of concern.

Locust infestations continue to grow along both sides of the Red Sea with swarms near the Sudan/Egypt border, the Sudan/Eritrea border and the coast of Yemen. Several swarms also recently arrived on the eastern coast of Oman and moved south to Yemen.

In southwest Asia, residual adult groups and swarms are still present along both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border.

In the Horn of Africa, governments are conducting aerial and ground control operations, spraying pesticides to kill the large swarms. But their capacities are stretched to the limit by the speed of the pests and the scale of infestation. In parts of Somalia, control operations are difficult due to security considerations. FAO is raising funds and surging experts and supplies to affected countries so that anti-locust activities can be scaled up.

The Desert Locust is the most dangerous migratory pest in the world. A locust swarm of one square kilometer can eat the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people. Another round of breeding has now begun in all three most affected countries. Left unchecked, and given additional rains expected - an enabler for Desert Locust reproduction - the scale of the upsurge could grow 500 times by June.

Desert Locust plagues occur infrequently and can have devastating impacts on crops, pastures, food security and livelihoods as well as unintended consequences on education, social repercussions, conflict and politics.

LOCATIONS: Jijiga, Ethiopia /Garowe, Somalia
DATE: 13 -14 November 2019 /5th February 2020
SOUND: Natural /English/French
LENGTH: 4.24
SOURCE: FAO
ACCESS: ALL

Location: Jijiga, Ethiopia, 13 -14 November 2019
1. Various shots of Desert locust swarms flying
Location: 5th February 2020/Garowe, Somalia
2. Hopper bands in Garowe, Somalia.
3. Various shots of hopper bands among bushes.
4. Hopper bands jumping through the stones
5. Close-up of a hopper on a stone.
6. Various shots of hoppers on the branches of a tree.
7. Close-up of hoppers eating tree leaves.
8. Close-up of a hopper on a branch.
9. Various shots of ground control operations. Local officers are spraying pesticides on bushes.

Location: Garowe, Somalia / 5th February 2020

11.SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Burgeon, Director of the Emergencies and Rehabilitation Division, FAO: “There are about 12 million people in the three countries that are already in IPC Phase 3+, which means that require humanitarian assistance for their survival. Therefore, what we really want to do is to avoid this situation to further deteriorate, especially that now, what we see, it’s that there will be a new generation of locusts that is going to come and that will coincide with more or less the time of the planting season that will start in April, May, in some of the countries”.

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Burgeon, Director of the Emergencies and Rehabilitation Division, FAO: “We were in Kenya two weeks ago. We have seen large swarms of locusts. For that, what we need to do is aerial spraying. What we saw here this morning, it’s hopper bands so they are not flying yet. For that, we can do ground control operations. So, there is a variety of tools that we have at our disposal to do these control operations. The problem we have in the region is that the planting season will occur very soon. It will start April, May in most of the countries. It means that if we are not able to control locust populations for the moment, there will be a huge impact on the forthcoming planting season.”

13.SOUNDBITE (English) Dominique Burgeon, Director of the Emergencies and Rehabilitation Division, FAO: “This is now that we need to mobilize international assistance. We have been appealing for 76 million dollars. Unfortunately, as of today, we have only received 19 million of that. We have received from the OCHA Central Emergency Response Fund, a few donors including FAO’s own resources but now it’s time for the international community to understand that it’s an issue that needs to be dealt with now. Otherwise, we will turn into a situation of a plague. There will be high levels of acute food insecurity, there will be million more people that will require food assistance and it will take us years to control the situation.”

14.SOUNDBITE (French) Dominique Burgeon, Director of the Emergencies and Rehabilitation Division, FAO: “Since the beginning of the month of January, we saw large quantities, huge swarms of locusts. Some of them measuring 60 km by 40 km, which means 2400 square kilometers. When we know that for just a square kilometer, 35 to 40 million of desert locusts can eat as much as 35 000 people, we realize that a swarm of this size, 60 by 40, can eat as much as 80 million people. It gives you a sense of the scale of the crisis we are facing and we need to address it immediately.”

Please give on-screen credit to FAO