A second wave of locust in Africa may be 20 times worse than the first wave.

A swarm of locusts in Kenya. The Guardian/AP.

A second wave of desert locusts in Africa may be 20 times worse than the first wave which has already done a large amount of damage. The Guardian. The locusts are a major threat to food security as a swarm that is the size of a third of a square mile can eat enough food to feed 35,000 people. New swarms are being formed in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The insects are following new vegetation growth after spring rains and have already spread to Uganda. February's outbreak of locusts was already the worst seen in 70 years and this new wave is expected to be much worse. The lockdowns in response to the Coronavirus is complicating things, due to border restrictions and difficulty delivering pesticides. 

My Comment:

A second wave of locusts was expected and this probably is the worse case scenario. This year's desert locusts have been a terrible swarm that has spread across the world, reaching as far as central Africa and even China. This next swarm is going to be 20 times as large and it will cause a massive amount of damage. 

The first swarm already did a lot of damage. They ate crops and generally made everyone miserable. It also proved that the local countries are not capable of defeating the swarms. Countries like Kenya and Somalia did not have enough pesticides to deal with the swarms and could not stop them. That situation is not any better now. 

There is a real chance that Africa will have major issues with food soon. The first swarm came early enough that most crops weren't even planted yet but now spring crops are going to be growing and will be vulnerable to the locusts. If those crops are destroyed than potentially millions of people are going to be without food. 

This would be a disaster in normal times but these are anything but. The countries in Africa (and presumably the Middle East as well) are dependent on countries in Europe and North America who are having massive problems fighting the Coronavirus. They will have very little in the way of resources to fight the locusts when their own countries are dealing with the massive outbreak. 

Not that Africa is immune to the virus either. Though their population is younger, therefore less vulnerable, the virus is going to make it more difficult to fight the insects. Either disaster would be too much to handle for some of these countries but with both going on at the same time? I don't see how they will be able to deal with this. 

The only good news is that the virus seems to have peaked in most of Europe and the United States. That means that things could be very different at the end of the month. As the locust plague gets worse, the hope is that the Coronavirus will be getting better. That might mean that the 1st world will be able to help. Let's hope that is the case because if it isn't pretty much everyone in the region is screwed.