Locusts spotted in Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

Moshi. The Kilimanjaro Regional Commissioner, Ms Anna Mghwira, said on Monday, February 10, 2020 that locusts were spotted in a village in Moshi, Kilimanjaro before the swam disappeared.

She said authorities were still not aware of where the swam flew to shortly after being spotted on Tanzania’s soils.

She said at the weekend, authorities received information that locusts were in Kenya, just about 50 kilometers away from the border with Tanzania.

“On Saturday, we got information that the swam was 50 kilometers away from Tanzania’s Mwanga area. We spoke to our colleagues at Taveta in Kenya and they told us that the swam had not yet reached their area. That gave us hope that so long as they have not reached Taveta in Kenya, then they were still far from us. However, in the evening yesterday (Sunday), they were spotted in Moshi and shortly disappeared,” said Ms Mghwira.

She said experts have been deployed to several places around Kilimanjaro Region. “They are on a fact-finding mission and as soon as they discover that locusts have finally reached Tanzania, we will immediately issue a statement,” she said.

East Africa is facing one of its locusts’ plagues since 1989.

Authorities in Uganda announced at the weekend that the locusts have entered their country from Kenya.

The insects were reportedly spotted in the eastern Amudat district bordering Kenya on Sunday.

The locust swarms have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Swarms have also been reported in Eritrea, Djibouti, Oman and Yemen, according to officials from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

It is believes that this is the worst desert locust outbreak to have hit Kenya in a period of 70 years.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said last week that it had mobilised $15.4 million of the $76 million requested to assist Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It said more funding would be needed if the outbreak spread to other countries, particularly South Sudan and Uganda.