*Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia threatened

One million people are in need of emergency food assistance in Ethiopia after the worst desert locust outbreak in decades.

Nearly 200,000 hectares of cropland were damaged by the insects, leading to the loss of over 356,000 tons of grain including sorghum, maize and wheat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, said Monday.

An additional 1.3 million hectares of pasture have been affected, reducing the area by as much as 61% in the Somali region.

The battle against the locust invasion has been exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis.

Following ample rain in March, new swarms of the pest are forming and threaten not only Ethiopia, but Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Yemen, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the UN agency said.

The East African region could be on the verge of a food crisis if the huge swarms of locusts devouring crops and pasture are not brought under control, a top UN official has told the BBC.

A massive food assistance may be required, Dominique Burgeon, Director of Emergencies for FAO, said.

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Efforts to control the infestation have so far not been effective.

Aerial spraying of pesticides is the most effective way of fighting the swarms of locusts, but countries in the region do not have the right resources.

There are fears that the locusts— already in the hundreds of billions— will multiply further.

The FAO says the insects are breeding so fast that numbers could grow 500 times by June.

The UN body has now called on the international community to provide nearly $76m (£58m) to fund the spraying of the affected areas with insecticide.

“If it doesn’t, the situation will deteriorate and then you will need to provide massive food assistance for a humanitarian situation that may even get out of control,” Mr. Burgeon said.

“There is always a risk when you have people in acute food insecurity that famine is not very far,” he added.

An FAO spokesperson later clarified that they were not warning about a famine, but rather “food insecurity.”

The locust invasion is the worst infestation in Kenya for 70 years and the worst in Somalia and Ethiopia for 25 years.

Somalia has declared a national emergency in response to the crisis.

The Ethiopian government has called for “immediate action” to deal with the problem affecting four of the country’s nine states.

Kenya has deployed aircrafts to spray pesticides in several regions, while Uganda plans to send soldiers to northern regions to spray the affected areas.

The locusts are thought to have spread from Yemen three months ago.

Vanguard