Massive locust swarms threaten east Africa

Massive swarms of locusts sweeping across much of east Africa have reached Uganda and Tanzania, the United Nations has said, threatening millions more people with hunger in an already fragile region. According to a report in The Guardian, Tanzania has detected swarms in its northern border areas close to Mount Kilimanjaro and hired three planes to spray pesticide, a tactic seen as the most effective means of countering the spread of the insects. Ugandan authorities have rushed pesticides to affected areas and has mobilised thousands of troops. ‘We are using motorised sprayers, a drone and manual sprayers,’ Stephen Byantwale, the commissioner for crop protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, said. ‘The locusts are spreading like wildfire, so they are a real, major threat.’ The outbreak in east Africa is the most serious in decades and has already devastated crops across a swath of Kenya and Somalia. Climate experts have pointed to unusually heavy rains, aided by a powerful cyclone off Somalia in December, as a major factor in the crisis.