Wildlife

African Locust Swarms

Somalia’s worst locust swarms in 25 years have devoured vast tracts of crops and grazing land across the country and parts of neighbouring Ethiopia.

Farmers faced with starvation have urged their governments to request aid from the international community to avert the looming famine.

The swarms were made worse by unseasonably heavy rainfall and the resulting floods that have killed hundreds of people across the Horn of Africa in recent months.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says the infestations have become far worse than its experts feared earlier this year.