Africa faces 'unprecedented threat' from locust outbreak 20 times larger than one earlier this year which was the biggest in seven decades


Africa is facing an 'unprecedented threat' from a second wave of locusts this year, 20 times larger than the first - which was already the worst in 70 years in some nations.

Billions of the young locusts are coming in from breeding grounds in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, threatening 'total destruction' of crops and farmland and putting millions of people at risk.

Some communities in Africa regard the desert insects as a greater threat than the coronavirus pandemic, which has so far spread less rapidly than in Asia or the West.

But the virus outbreak is also making matters worse because frustrated farmers are prevented from leaving their homes and gathering to fend off the insects.

It is the locusts that 'everyone is talking about,' said Yoweri Aboket, a farmer in Uganda.

'Once they land in your garden they do total destruction. Some people will even tell you that the locusts are more destructive than the coronavirus. There are even some who don't believe that the virus will reach here.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ns-Africa.html