Serious locust outbreak hits East Africa
The most serious outbreak of locusts in 25 years is spreading across East Africa and posing an unprecedented threat to food security in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, authorities say. Unusual climate conditions are partly to blame.
The locust swarms hang like shimmering dark clouds on the horizon in some places. Roughly the length of a finger, the insects fly together by the millions and are devouring crops and forcing people in some areas to bodily wade through them. Near the Kenyan town of Isiolo on Thursday, one young camel herder swung a stick at them, with little effect. Others tried to shout them away.
An “extremely dangerous increase” in locust swarm activity has been reported in Kenya, the East African regional body reported this week. One swarm measured 37 miles long by 25 miles wide in the country’s northeast, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development said in a statement.
“A typical desert locust swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer,” it said. “Swarms migrate with the wind and can cover 100 to 150 kilometers in a day. An average swarm can destroy as much food crops in a day as is sufficient to feed 2,500 people.”
Strike closes Louvre
Visitors were turned away from the Louvre on Friday after strikers protesting the French government’s planned pension overhaul blocked entrances to the Paris museum, leaving tourists from around the world befuddled and frustrated.
The Louvre — the world’s most visited museum — was the latest target in the 44-day standoff between the government of President Emmanuel Macron and the labor unions opposed to him, with strikes that have caught commuters, business people and tourists in the middle.
About 100 protesters prevented visitors from entering the museum, including through the famed glass pyramid that sits in the Louvre’s central courtyard, where they waved union placards and chanted slogans against Macron as tourists looked on glumly.
“Closing the Louvre to prevent tourists from visiting is very important because it’s the most visited museum in the world,” said Christophe Benoit, 52, a protesting employee of France’s Culture Ministry, although he acknowledged that some visitors were “very angry.”
Not everyone was convinced. One crestfallen visitor, who gave only her first name, Chantal, said she had come from a Paris suburb to see the Leonardo da Vinci retrospective, which is fully booked far in advance.
Unrest in Iraq kills 2
Two protesters were killed and over a dozen wounded in central Baghdad on Friday in renewed violence between anti-government demonstrators and Iraqi security forces, activists and officials said. The deaths followed weeks of calm.
Riot police fired tear gas and hurled sound bombs to disperse crowds on the strategic Sinak Bridge after protesters attempted to breach cement barriers previously erected by security forces, causing the casualties, activists and medical and security officials said.
Two protesters were killed and at least 20 wounded, three activists and a security official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Friday’s violence breaks a period of calm between protesters and security after tensions soared between Tehran and Washington following a U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general.