Kenya suffers from the worst locust plague in 70 years. The fear is that such phenomena are on the increase due to climate change.

The son of a farmer fights against insects: locusts plague in Kenya photo: ap

NAIROBI taz | East Africa is haunted by swarms of desert locusts have already devoured tens of thousands of acres of grain and Grass. The plague is indirectly connected with climate change, say scientists. You still fear of more insects diseases for the future.

"Yesterday, my Corn looked, thanks to the rainy Season is still beautiful. Now I just have bare stems on my field,“ says Elisepha Kivuta from Kitui, a Region approximately 150 kilometers East of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

locusts The plague of the Desert (Schistocerca gregaria) is the worst since the end of seventy years in Kenya. In Somalia and Ethiopia, it was the last Invasion on this scale, 25 years ago. Somalia has declared a state of emergency. It is expected that other countries will follow. Meanwhile, the swarms of locusts also to Uganda and in South Sudan, where almost half of the population due to the war already over too little food.

The population in the affected countries, this leads to climate change. "For the past ten years, we do not know when we are sowing, and plants will. The weather is different every year. After a lot of drought, it's raining a lot now and all of a sudden, the locusts are coming,“ noted a farmer Kivuta. Similar comments are also heard in other countries.

The desert locusts do not lay their eggs in moist soil, so they dry out. If your otherwise dry environment a lot of rain falls, start the animals to multiply as fast as lightning. When the brood hatches after between four and six weeks, the locusts because of the rain to eat a lot. As soon as there is a lot of desert locusts in one place and the environment is eaten bare, search for new feeding grounds. There, you can continue the quick propagation behavior.

constructed Salih Babiker, Sudanese climate expert at the IGAD, the East African trading bloc of eight countries, the warming in the Indian ocean to the debt. "The warming of the waters along the East African coast in the past year has led to unusual tropical cyclones in the Region. The strong rain has commanded the desert locusts excellent breeding conditions.“

East Africa suffers not normally under cyclones, and if the Region meet, there are more than one or two per year. In the past year, there were eight. This not only caused a much longer, but also more intense rainy season. And that, although the Region has been in the past twenty years and more of persistent drought.

desert loners are the locusts under normal circumstances. As in the past year, however, a lot of rain fell in the desert of Oman, there were perfect conditions for the locusts. As soon as they were grown to large swarms approached, they spread themselves in Yemen, crossing the Gulf of Aden to East Africa.

A average swarm of desert locusts, according to the IGAD currently has around 150 million animals per square kilometer. The organization reports that such a swarm can be in one day a crop to eat, which could feed 2,500 people. The insects eat almost anything, but prefer millet, rice, Grass, sugar cane and Corn.

in Short, the swarms pose a great threat to the nutritional situation. The cattle dies of a lack of Grass, which, in turn, leads to poverty among the livestock of nomads. While the world is Worried about the Corona Virus, is in East Africa, keyword: climate change.

claimed The Kenyan government, they have control over the Invasion, although 15 of the 47 districts are affected since of the locusts. It has a total of five aircraft for the Spraying of pesticides. As a result, the desert is not to be killed, the locusts themselves, but the eggs destroyed. Four helicopters searching the swarms. Somalia and South Sudan are prevented by the civil wars in their countries to combat.

estimates The UN food and agriculture organization, FAO, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia are in need of approximately EUR 70 million for the fight. A the end of the plague is not in the short term, to refrain. It must first stay a few months to dry, so that the desert locusts have less food and return to your normal life style. It is expected that the scourge can only be in June, brought under control.

The fear is that due to the climate change, more diseases in the catchment could hold. For the past three years, farmers fight plague in more than half of the continent with a Worm. The scientists Elias Ayuk (Cameroon) and Ngozi Unuigbe (Nigeria) noted in their book, "New Frontiers in Natural Resource Management in Africa", that "the propagation, development, and population dynamics of insect pests is the direct result of climate change. It helps in the dissemination of indigenous and exotic species.“