Africa Braces for a Record Wave of Locusts
First came the floods. The waters swamped bean and corn fields and created a breeding ground the size of Manhattan for a swarm of desert locusts that fanned out and destroyed a swath of farmland across eight East African nations as large as Oklahoma earlier this year.
Now their offspring are threatening a historic infestation—a second wave of locusts, 20 times as large as the first, that the U.N. warns could chew their way through 2 million square miles of pastureland, farms and gardens, around half the size of Western Europe.
The swarms, which would be by far the largest on record, are expected to descend as the new coronavirus accelerates across East Africa, raising the prospect of a double-shock to some of the world’s poorest and most heavily-indebted economies. The World Bank has warned the locusts could cause more than $8.5 billion in damage this year.
Aid agencies warn that, together, they could lead to a collapse in agricultural production and mass food shortages. “We have killed millions and millions of locusts, but they keep returning,” said General Sam Kavuma, the commander of Uganda’s 2,000-strong military unit fighting to halt the invading bugs. “We have never seen anything like this.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/africa-braces-for-a-record-wave-of-locusts-11588152655
