Setting smoky bonfires of tires and trash, people in the West African country of Mauritania battled the sub-Sahara's largest locust invasion in more than a decade as swarms swept south from the desert.
Locusts settled on the desert capital of Nouakchott on Thursday in vision-blurring clouds, prompting traffic collisions and crunching underfoot with each step in sand-covered streets.
"It's beautiful to see and funny, the locusts on parade in the sky," marveled Aicha Bint Sadibouh, a woman in Nouakchott. "But when they invade the streets and homes, it's disastrous," Sadibouh said.
Moving at up to 100km a day, the crop-eating insects were settling at an estimated rate of 50 million per km2, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned. Experts warned of threats to vital rainy season planting, calling for urgent international action for an arid region perpetually on the edge of food shortages.
"Some farmers now are afraid to plant any more seeds; they're afraid once seeds germinate and the little plants come up, they will be attacked by the locusts," said Keith Cressman, a locust forecast officer with the Rome-based FAO.
"The last risk is that when the crops are ready to be harvested, around September, that will coincide with the formation of new swarms" from eggs being laid now, Cressman said. "That harvest could be seriously disrupted," making for a "very difficult summer" for farmers.
At risk are sustenance crops of millet, sorghum and other grains that feed millions in vulnerable Saharan states. Vegetable crops for markets likewise were in danger.
Swarms descended on Nouakchott on Wednesday, making good on weeks of warnings from African leaders and international agencies that unseasonably heavy rains to the north had spawned the northwest Sahara's largest locust infestation since 1988.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
RSS