THE DOUBLE BURDEN OF COVID-19 AND
LOCUSTS IN EAST AFRICA
Saving Millions of People From Hunger and Malnutrition

Rescue.org

AMINO AHMED WITH IRC NUTRITION MANAGER AFTER BEING SCREENED FOR MALNUTRITION BY THE IRC AT KARAAN HOSPITA IN MOGADISHU, SOMALIA. KELLIE RYAN/IRC

Without intervention, desert locust swarms in the Horn and East Africa may cause
mass crop failure, exacerbating an already serious food security situation and plunging
4.9 million people into crisis level food insecurity
Coinciding with COVID, an upsurge of Desert Locust is taking
place in the Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula and Southwest
Asia, with risk of spreading to the Sahel region if it is not
stopped by July. The Desert Locust is the world’s mostdangerous migratory pests. A typical swarm can consist ofup to 150 million locusts per square kilometer and can migrate
as far as 150 kilometers in one day. Even a tiny, one-squarekilometer locust swarm is capable of consuming the sameamount of food in one day as approximately 35,000 people.
This infestation of desert locusts first arrived in East Africa
last June, feeding on hundreds of thousands of hectares ofcrops and pastureland and causing destruction in at least eight
countries — Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia,Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan. This the most serious desert
locust outbreak in East Africa in 70 years and represents
an unprecedented risk to food security and livelihoods. Without
a ramp up in preventative measures, there is a risk swarms will
migrate to West Africa and continue to spread across the IndoPakistan Border.
Growing risk of famine across the horn and East Africa
Coupled with the impacts of COVID-19, the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is warning of thegrowing risk of famine across the region. East Africa alreadyhas 20 million severely food insecure people, who meet theirbasic needs each day. FAO is predicting that a 4th generationof eggs will hatch creating a new swarm in mid-June, coinciding
with the start of harvest threatening current crop production,
livestock pasture and crop cultivation for the following season.
• 3.5 million people are projected to face food crisis or worse
in Somalia, between July and September 2020, without
humanitarian assistance.
• 8,000 times population size increase, from the original
swarm, is expected in mid-June if a new wave of desert
locust breeding is not stopped• Tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and pasture
have already been damaged across the Horn and EastAfrica.
Somalia estimated to be the hardest hit
In February 2020, the Somali government was first in theregion to declare a nation-wide emergency in response to
the desert locust crisis. On May18th, FAO categorized thesituation as “Dangerous,” representing a serious threat to crops.
Communities that the IRC and partner organizations workwith reported that slightly more than half of their cultivatedlands (56%) were affected by the recent infestation. Thelocust infestation has already damaged more than 25,000km

of pastoral land as of March 2020, constituting a 55% lossof available pasture. The impact on the community is evident.
As IRC’s local partner Sahal Farah, Community Resilience
Committee Vice Chairman for Docol, in Somalia stated,compounding factors in this crisis. More information is alsoneeded to better understand the context-specific impacts ofthis crisis on women and girls.
IRC and communities are putting in control measures“This is the worst locust invasion we have seen in ourgeneration, it destroyed pastures, contaminated water
sources and displaced many pastoral households. The
worst of all is that we do not have the capacity to control
it and so far we have not received any external support.”
He continued, “Huge hectares of pasture land <were>completely destroyed by the locust and as a result many
pastoralist migrated and this has put extra burden toour villages as the major livelihood source was livestockproducts.”
Without intervention FAO predicts a 50-70% cereal harvest
loss in worst case, or at least 20-30% loss in the best case.
This could lead to earlier than normal depletion of pasture land,
forcing pastoralists to migrate further distances than normal.
Below average national harvests have the potential to resultin rising food prices exacerbating the already serious foodsecurity situation.
Women face increased risks
As the situation deteriorates across the Horn and East Africa,
women and girls may face particular risk. Depletion of pasturelands and crop failures, will increase the distance and durationof migration for pastoralists who are primarily male. The
absence of male partners and adolescent sons in pastoralist
communities, increases women and girls’ vulnerability toexternal threats, such as theft or violence. Additionally, womenface an increased burden to manage the existing farms or
small businesses and assume all unpaid care needs of theirhouseholds and communities. Female headed households will
be particularly vulnerable to crop failure and livestock needs
with less mobility and access to agricultural support services.
Gender-sensitive programing is necessary to address theIRC is engaged in desert locust task force activities in Somalia
and supporting community sensitization on desert locust control
measures. IRC is training Community Resilience Committees(CRC) on control measures and providing agri-inputs andfodder to locust affected smallholder farmers. IRC is currently
supporting 34 communities in 4 regions and 6 districts with a
total of 372 CRCs. Through assessments, IRC estimates that
5,000 households, especially female headed households, docurrently or will need urgent humanitarian assistance by August
if harvests fail and if market prices for food increase. IRC plansto scale up multipurpose case assistance, agri-input and fodder
support to reach all 5,000 at-risk households. This is just an
example of programming in Somalia, the likes that will need
to be scaled up across the Horn and East Africa, if prevention
measures are not immediately undertaken by the larger
international community.
Larger scale funding is necessary to reduce risk ofwide-spread famine
Scaling necessary response and prevention activities isessential to mitigate the risk of wide-spread famine. Yet, thelack of funding poses challenges to IRC and its local partners
to adequately support communities and thus placing vulnerable
affected household members, the majority of whom are womenand children, at greater risk of hunger, malnutrition and death.
IRC calls for 1.98M USD to respond to the desert locust
emergency in Somalia for the year 2020. IRC also appeals toFAO, Government and the desert locust task forces to continue
timely support to the affected communities especially inproviding analysis of locust movements, technical assistance forthe control of the locusts, coordination, and information sharing.

FRONT: TRILLIONS OF LOCUSTS ARE SWARMING ACROSS PARTS OF KENYA, SOMALIA AND ETHIOPIA. FREDRIK LERNERYD/GETTY IMAGES
MAP PAGE THREE: © FAO 2020, DESERT LOCUST GLOBAL FORECASE MAY-JULY 2020, HTTP://WWW.FAO.ORG/AG/LOCUSTS/EN/INFO/INFO/INDEX.HTML, JUNE 2, 2020
BACK: ATHOK ATHIAN NGOG IS PICTURED CULTIVATING HER LAND AT HER VILLAGE IN PANTHOU, AWEIL SOUTH STATE, SOUTH SUDAN. CHARLES ATIKI LOMODONG/IRC

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