Locust Infestation
Insect Infestation
How the score is calculated
The score starts at 8. It adds points from recorded affected, deaths, displaced and casualty counts, plus terms found in the story title, event type or status. For each count, only its highest matching band is used.
- Affected people
- 1–999: +5 · 1,000–9,999: +12 · 10,000–99,999: +20 · 100,000–999,999: +28 · 1 million+: +35
- Deaths
- 1–9: +8 · 10–99: +14 · 100–999: +22 · 1,000+: +30
- Displaced people
- 1–9,999: +6 · 10,000–99,999: +12 · 100,000+: +18
- Casualties
- 100 or more: +8
- Story wording
- +10 for terms such as catastrophe, famine, war, conflict, major earthquake, mass casualty or critical. Otherwise, +5 for active, ongoing, emergency, outbreak, cyclone or hurricane.
Score bands: Watch 0–24 · Moderate 25–49 · High 50–74 · Critical 75–100. Scores are capped at 100. Missing or unparseable figures add no points.
This is a rule-based WorldsAid triage indicator, not an official or independently validated classification. It does not account for recency or local context, and it can understate events with incomplete reporting. Check the linked sources.
Historical record
Status: CLOSED · Imported 2026-10-07
Closed for this historical import at the site owner’s request; not a new assessment of current conditions.
In brief
- What happenedOutbreaks of African Migratory Locust (AML) are threatening the food security and livelihoods of millions of people in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned today at the launch of an emergency response effort to control the swarms.
- How many affectedAffected persons: 2,300,000
- What help is neededAround 7 million people in the four affected countries who are still recovering from the impact of the 2019 drought, and grappling with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, could experience further food and nutrition insecurity.
What changed
First retained snapshot
No earlier verified snapshot is present in the recovered dataset. This record remains available as the historical baseline.
Situation
Outbreaks of African Migratory Locust (AML) are threatening the food security and livelihoods of millions of people in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned today at the launch of an emergency response effort to control the swarms. Around 7 million people in the four affected countries who are still recovering from the impact of the 2019 drought, and grappling with the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, could experience further food and nutrition insecurity. FAO is working with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the International Red Locust Control Organization for Central and Southern Africa (IRLCO-CSA) to support the governments of the affected countries to control the locusts. ( FAO, 4 Sep 2020 ) FAO promotes preventive strategies for locust management, which rely on early warning and early reactions. Delaying the response would prove more costly financially, environmentally, socially and economically. The build-up and spread of the pest could exacerbate the impacts of COVID-19 and threaten the next planting season. Urgent actions are needed to identify locust hotspots and ensure the pest is controlled in them. The capacity of countries to monitor the spread of the pest through regular surveillance and mapping should be enhanced in order to increase their ability to take timely and anticipatory action to prevent the pest from causing serious damage to crops and pastures. ( FAO, 21 Sep 2020 ) Recent outbreaks of African Migratory Locusts (AMLs) across Southern Africa are threatening 2021 production and compounding the existing challenges caused by floods, drought, and impacts of COVID-19. Both AMLs and red locust hoppers were reported in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. ( GEOGLAM, 8 Oct 2020 ) In Zambia the outbreak of the AML affects parts of Central, Southern and Western Provinces. Affected districts include Shibuyunji, Mumbwa, Itezhi-tezhi, Kazungula, Namwala, Sesheke, Nalolo, Mongu, Mwandi, Kalabo, Senanga and Sioma. The invasion has become very serious in Sesheke, Mwandi and Sioma in Western and Kazungula in Southern Provinces. The outbreak of the locusts has the potential to disrupt the 2020/2021 agricultural season that is due to start in October/November and thereby affect household and national food security. ( FAO, 26 Oct 2020 ) 2.3 million people across Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe are at risk of further food security deterioration in the region due to African Migratory Locust (AML). In addition, FAO has released an early warning for Desert Locust for north-eastern regions of the United Republic of Tanzania. ( FAO, FSNWG, NEPAD, OCHA, 23 Nov 2020 ) Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has announced that [ South Africa ] is currently experiencing outbreaks of locusts in the Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape. “Control measures are currently being implemented to curb the spread of the locusts. The current strong winds are aiding the fight and spread of the locusts,” Didiza said in a statement on Wednesday. The Minister also urged the farmers and farmer organisations to alert the department whenever they spot a swarm of locusts, and work with the officials on the ground to curb the spread. ( Gov't of South Africa, 3 Dec 2020 ) Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have been facing a serious outbreak of the African migratory locust (AML) (Locusta migratoria migratorioides) since May 2020. Damage to summer crops was limited as harvesting had already occurred. However, irrigated crops, winter crops and the next season of summer crops are now in jeopardy. About 1.1 million hectares have already been affected, according to the Food and Nutrition Security Working Group (FSNWG). The AML is a transboundary pest capable of flying long distances and severely affecting crops, pastures as well as food security, nutrition and livelihoods. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), about 2.3 million people already facing acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) are likely to be seriously impacted by AML in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia. ( FAO, 18 Dec 2020 ) The African Migratory Locust (AML) outbreak has continued in the region, with recent sightings reported in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia. High rainfall and abundant vegetation have provided optimal conditions for the breeding and multiplication of the AML. Swarms of locusts have been observed moving between south-eastern Angola, north-western Botswana, north-eastern Namibia, and south-western Zambia. Swarms of Desert Locusts were observed in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. In all the affected areas, control efforts are ongoing. ( FEWS NET SADC, 1 Mar 2021 )
Linked charities and agencies
WorldsAid verification
A WorldsAid editor reviewed this record against 1 attributed source, cleaned feed formatting and checked the crisis, place and reporting date. 1 human-impact figure was separated from the narrative and dated where the source allowed. Earlier observations remain in the evidence history instead of being silently overwritten.
Verified figures
- Affected persons
- 2,300,000 retained at 2021-03-10
What we knew when
- WorldsAid record entered the retained historical dataset.
- Last verification represented by this immutable snapshot.
Earlier figures are never replaced by later values; additional observations are retained as new ledger entries.
Provenance
This page renders the last verified WorldsAid cache directly in HTML. It does not treat generated summaries as primary evidence.
Cached dataset: worldsai_drup771.sql.gz
Verified
SHA-256 c71fa02fbecd9d3a39d9dbd9449b784a50756d782f8df2a1c3cf4f012f03c126