Ethiopian farmer Ahmed Ibrahim batted empty water bottles at a swarm of desertthe size of his palms that were devouring his field of khat -the mildly narcotic leaf that is his family’s main source of income.
The locusts devoured Ibrahim’s small grazing plot as hisdonkeys brayed anxiously and goats scrambled to eat the remaining foliage. Scenes like this are happening across the Horn of Africa,where swarms of desert locusts have damaged tens of thousands of hectares so far, the Food and Agriculture Organization said.
Breeding is continuing on both sides of the Red Sea, in Sudan and Eritrea and in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, the FAO said. The swarms spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into eastern and northern Kenya last week, threatening food production and the economy, Kenya’s then-agriculture minister said, before being fired in a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.