Locust invasion! Japan commits $7.5m

Shinzi Abe, Prime Minister, Japan

Needless to say, the desert locust invasion of East Africa has not received as much world attention as the ongoing coronavirus saga.

But it’s a significant threat nevertheless and many countries have chipped in financially to help the Food and Agriculture Organisation bring about a solution to it.

And on March 10, Japan extended emergency grant aid of seven million, five hundred thousand US dollars to Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti for the damage caused by the locusts.

The grant is to provide humanitarian assistance in the area of food through the World Food Programme and its expected outcome/output is as follows:

Kenya

Provision of support to 80,000 people including children aged 6-59 months and pregnant women to prevent malnutrition and improve their nutritional condition.

And implementation of resilience building activities to 87,000 small-scale farmers.

Somalia

Provision of relief assistance to approximately 28,000 people to improve their nutritional condition.

Djibouti

Provision of support to approximately 1,410 small-scale farming households through resilience building and food assistance.

Amount of assistance by country

Kenya: $3.6m

Somalia: $3.1m

Djibouti: $0.8m