On Sunday, Somalia became the first African country to declare the locust invasion sweeping the Horn of Africa as a national emergency.

Somalia’s Ministry of Agriculture said the emergency declaration is aimed at making efforts and raising funds, to contain the dire locust invasion before harvest are due in April. It went further to say that the desert locust surge “poses a major threat to Somalia’s fragile food security situation”.

According to the Regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group, over 19 million people in East Africa are already experiencing a high level of food insecurity.

The locust invasion has led to what the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa.

Read more at Aljazeera