By: Getahun Tsegaye
Staff Reporter
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – The Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture today announced its active involvement in the rehabilitation of communities affected by desert locust invasions through the ongoing Desert Locust Prevention and Control Project.
In a statement issued today the Ministry said that over the past five years, integrated efforts to prevent desert locusts have benefited more than 1 million farmers and pastoralists. It is further reported that over 505,000 hectares of land have been sprayed with chemicals, utilizing a combination of airplanes, vehicles, and manual labor.
“Over the past year, a significant focus has been placed on rehabilitating communities affected by these extensive prevention and control efforts’’ the statement read.
It is said that a four-day consultative forum on the performance of the Desert Locust Prevention and Control Project, held with stakeholders in Arba Minch town, recently concluded. The Ministry also said during the forum, a “crucial” field visit was conducted in Umo Lante Kebele, Western Abaya District, Gamo Zone, South Ethiopia Region. The visit included representatives and senior experts from the Ministry, the World Bank, and various regions where the project is being implemented. It is said that the team inspected the construction site and preparatory work for the Arba Minch Transboundary Pest Control Station, a key project initiative.
Eastern Africa experienced a severe locust invasion starting in November 2019, when large swarms of these destructive pests entered the region. What began as a limited outbreak quickly escalated, spreading across a vast geographical area and evolving into a major upsurge.
This crisis, it is said, raised significant alarms regarding food security and the livelihoods of people in the region. For Ethiopia and Somalia, this invasion was the worst they had seen in 25 years, while for Kenya, it was the most devastating in 70 years.
The past two years (2023-2025) have likely seen a continuation of impacts from these desert locust outbreaks, even though the most severe phases described in various reports largely predate this period. While specific data for 2023-2025 is limited, it is reported that the two previous major invasions (late 2019/early 2020 and October-November 2020) caused significant agricultural damage, heightened food insecurity, and considerable economic strain in Ethiopia.
According to reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), between June and December 2019, approximately 430 km² of hopper bands consumed an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of vegetation across regions like Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and Somali. By early 2021, it was reported that around 365,000 hectares of farmland had been destroyed.
More recently, ReliefWeb, in its July 7, 2025 report, indicated that locust outbreaks in North Africa are shifting southwards into the Sahel, with summer breeding expected in countries including Sudan. However, Ethiopia was not named among the primary breeding zones in this particular report.
ReliefWeb further reflected in its February 5, 2025 report that desert locust outbreaks continued in January in Sudan, Eritrea, and in the northern Sahel of Niger and southern Algeria. In Sudan, hopper and adult groups, as well as bands and swarms, persisted along the Nile River and Red Sea coast, where a second generation of winter breeding continued. Groups also continued to appear along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and its regional partners have issued caution-level alerts for Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Chad, and Niger. The FAO is actively coordinating efforts with national authorities to prevent the insects from spreading south into the Sahel, where further rains could trigger a new wave of breeding.
“The current outbreaks are due to very favorable breeding conditions over a six-month period in the northern Sahel, following significant rainfall in August and September 2024,” said Cyril Piou of FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS).
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