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United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had projected increased breeding in areas likely to receive rainfall despite a decline in locust populations following sustained control operations/COURTESY

County News

Swarms of locusts invade Mandera’s Rhamu Dimtu area from neighboring Ethiopia

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 2 – Desert locusts have reinvaded the country with a new swarm arriving from Ethiopia reported in Mandera’s Rhamu Dimtu.

Mandera Governor Ali Roba said the invasion in Mandera North Sub-County was reported on Monday evening at sunset.

A report by a local technical team revealed that an area of approximately 2,000 Hectares was under invasion by the destructive insects within the affected.

Roba urged the National Government to act swiftly before it spreads beyond Mandera and contain them by aerial spraying.

The sighting of the locusts came amid projections by United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of increased breeding in areas likely to receive rainfall despite a decline in locust populations following sustained control operations.

“As vegetation dries out in the breeding areas of northeast Ethiopia, any swarms that form are expected to migrate north through the Ethiopian Highlands to the Red Sea coast of Eritrea and southeast to eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia,” FAO’s situation update published on October 14 read.

A new swarm arriving from Ethiopia was reported in Mandera’s Rhamu Dimtu ward on Tuesday/COURTESY

The agency however remained update that the scale of potential invasions would be subdued.

“Although the scale of this migration is nearly impossible to predict due to conflict and a lack of reporting, the swarm numbers and sizes should be limited and certainly much less than last year at this time,” FAO stated.

The pests first invaded the country on December 28, 2019 in Mandera and later moved to other parts of the country.

The government has since set up eight control bases in Isiolo, Masinga in Embu, Marsabit, Lodwar in Turkana, Wajir and Garissa county.

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