Double trouble for East Africa as locusts to come back 20 times strongTwo Samburu men who work for a county disaster team identifying the location of the locusts are surrounded by a swarm of desert locusts filling the air, near the village of Sissia, in Samburu County, Kenya. A locust swarm of one square kilometre can eat the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people,” reads a statement by FOAThe pest leapfrogged their way from Yemen last year into Somalia and made their way west and south into Kenya and Ethiopia. This unprecedented and unimaginable move of pests moving from one continent to the other was facilitated by favorable climatic conditions both in Yemen and Somalia.On May 18, 2018 cyclone Sagar sprayed heavy rains on the coast of Yemen and one week later Cyclone Mekunu poured damaging rainfall in Yemeni island; a place rarely hit by cyclones. It is these events that led to the deadly invasion that has left East Africa dealing with a threat that had been a ghost since the 1970s.As East African countries’ eyes and efforts remain focused on preventing the spread of Covid-19, the enemy within continues to grow wings, threatening the food source of an already struggling populationDo not miss out on the latest news. Join the Standard Digital Telegram channel HERE.

Source: Standard Digital April 17, 2020 08:04 UTC