Locusts swarm over Kenya

Vast swarms of desert locusts are causing havoc through Kenya. The swarms arrived having already decimated crops in Somalia and Ethiopia.

The locusts, part of the grasshopper family, swarm in numbers as high as 80 million, capable of covering daily distances of up to 130 kilometres.

Causing major crop damage, severely affecting the availability of food, plagues of locusts lead to hunger and starvation, with 'food security' becoming a serious concern for the region.

Reportedly, the Horn of Africa's "worst situation in 25 years", according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), these recent locust invasions have seen people resort to desperate measures. Police have been deployed to fire shots into the air and spray insects with teargas. Two aircraft and pesticides have been acquired by the Kenyan Government to spray areas affected.

This follows some 70,000 hectares already believed to have been infested in Ethiopia and Somalia, and comes amid fears that growing populations of locusts exist in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

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