A humanitarian disaster.
The main surprise is
that it that has not yet
been blamed on
climate change.
The worst outbreak
of desert locusts
in 70 years.
Locusts
are ravaging
East Africa,
mainly Kenya.
Hundreds of millions
have swarmed in from
Somolia and Ethiopia,
reports the
Associated Press.
The voracious insects
are feasting on crops.
This "huge" infestation
is threatening to devastate
a region that has had
long struggles with
food security.
The invading locusts
devour crops at an
incredibly rapid pace
70,000 hectares
( 172,973 acres )
of land in Kenya
are already infested.
A single swarm
can contain up to
150 million locusts
per square kilometer
of farmland.
One especially large swarm
in northeastern Kenya
measured 60 kilometers long
by 40 kilometers wide
( 37 miles long by 25 miles wide ).
“Even cows are wondering
what is happening,”
one local farmer laments
in the AP report.
“Corn, sorghum, cowpeas,
they have eaten everything.”
Mega-swarms consume
the food that the livestock
survive on.
New rains after March
could bring another
explosion of the
fast breeding locusts,
before the usual
dry season takes
their numbers
back down.
