Billions of locusts infest East Africa threatening to do millions of dollars in damage.

Map showing the spread of the locusts. Washington Post.

Billions of locusts are infesting East Africa potentially causing millions of dollars in damage and potentially causing a famine. Washington Post. The swarm crossed the gulf of Aden and the Red Sea from Yemen and have now infested Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. The swarm is being fueled by unusually wet weather. The swarm could eat crops which would cause food insecurity for a region that already has problems feeding their population. Part of the problem is the political situation in both Yemen and Somalia where conflict and war prevent control efforts. Kenya and Ethiopia have been attempting to use pesticides to control the swarm but only have a few planes to do so. 

My Comment:

Locust swarms are pretty common in the region but what is different this time is how big these swarms are. The Desert Locus usually comes around this time of year due to the start of rains but the rain has been especially bad this year. 

The media is blaming global warming but they blame everything on global warming. It really has more to do with the conditions of the Indian ocean, which is similar to the el-Nino in the Pacific. It is causing all the rain in the Horn of Africa and the drought and wildfires in Australia. These things happened before global warming was a thing and will continue to do so in the future. 

This could be a major problem though. The swarm is already huge and could greatly damage the crops for Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. These countries already have problems feeding their people and if all their crops get eaten then they could have a famine on their hands. 

But even more concerning is that if this swarm isn't brought under control it could spread to the rest of Africa. The rest of Africa certainly has their own problems with food security and cannot handle a huge swarm of insects eating everything in sight. 

The efforts to control this swarm don't seem to be working. Part of that is due to the limited resources in the region. Combined, Kenya and Ethiopia only have 8 planes to spray these bugs with insecticides. And both Somalia and Yemen have next to no resources to fight these locusts due to the awful security situation in both countries. When your country is a war zone with jihadists running around and people are already starving there isn't much you can do to fight locusts.  

The timing of this situation isn't great either. Though the Coronavirus has mostly been contained to China for the time being, it may soon spread to Africa. If it does and they entire continent has to deal with a locust swarm at the same time it could be a nightmare scenario that devastates the economy and kills millions. 

That's the worst case scenario though. I am hoping that it doesn't happen and I am guessing that the locust plague will be contained to the horn of Africa. And who knows, maybe Coronavirus won't even make it to Africa? But if I was living there right now I'd be more than a little concerned.