Hunger threatens East Africa as massive locust outbreak causes havoc

Unprecedented invasion could destabilise food security

21 January 2020 - 11:55
By Busang Senne

The Horn of Africa is suffering from an unprecedented locust invasion that could destabilise food security and have serious consequences for the agriculture of surrounding communities.

Al Jazeera reports that millions of the crop-destroying insects, called desert locusts, have affected areas in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea.

According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, the natural disaster has affected “hundreds of thousands of hectares” of grazing plots and could severely disrupt the food production of local economies.