Swarm of locusts descend on Ethiopian town

Ethiopia and Somalia are in the midst of their worst locust invasion in 25 years and Kenya in over 70 years, posing an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa, the UN food and agriculture agency said Wednesday.

Rosanne Marchesich, the Emergency response and resilience team leader at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said that some 430 square kilometers 166 square miles) of land had been affected in Ethiopia, causing extensive crop damage.

"As it moves to other parts of the country, we expect that the impact that it will have on food security and agricultural livelihoods – both for the farmers and the pastoralists – can be significant," Marchesich said.

Uganda and South Sudan, where 47 percent of the population is already food insecure, were now on watch as the invasion risked spreading, Marchesich warned.

"Uganda has not had to deal with a locust infestation since the 60's so there is concern about the ability for experts on the ground to be able to deal with it, without external support," she added.

Marchesich said the agency was monitoring the situation but argued that was not enough.

"We also have to have anticipatory approaches to safeguard the livelihoods of the farmers and the agriculturalists," she stressed.

The FAO said on Monday that In addition, other important locust situations continued to develop along both sides of the Red Sea, in Oman and in southern Iran.