2019–2022 locust infestation

Between June 2019 and February 2022, a major outbreak of desert locusts began developing, threatening food supplies in East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent. The outbreak was the worst to hit Kenya in 70 years, and the worst in 25 years for Ethiopia, Somalia, and India.

The locust infestations began when Cyclone Mekunu in 2018 produced heavy rains in the Rub' al Khali of the Arabian Peninsula; in spring 2019, swarms spread from these areas, and by June 2019, the locusts spread north to Iran, Pakistan, and India and south to East Africa, particularly the Horn of Africa. By the end of 2019, there were swarms in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Oman, Iran, India, and Pakistan. By June 2020, a separate swarm appeared in South America, affecting Paraguay and Argentina.

In April 2020, travel and shipping restrictions precipitated by the spread of COVID-19 began to hamper efforts to control the locusts, preventing the transport of pesticides, equipment, and personnel, and contributing to the global incidence of COVID-19 related food insecurity.

Locust swarms worldwide faced a steady decline in size from May to October 2020, as countries and intergovernmental organisations instituted extensive aerial and ground pest control efforts, aided by low quantities of rainfall in several affected regions, as well as the absence of storm activity in the Indian Ocean. By October 2020, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen continued to harbour significant swarms of locusts, with the remainder situated in isolated pockets of Kenya, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Locust swarms continued to threaten countries around the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as their immediate neighbours, until February 2022 when the surge was officially declared to be over.