Young desert locusts that have not yet grown wings jump in the air as they are approached, as a visiting delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) observes them, in the desert near Garowe, in the semi-autonomous Puntland region of Somalia, Feb. 5, 2020.

FILE - Young locusts that have not yet grown wings jump in the air as they are approached, as a visiting delegation from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) observes them, in the desert near Garowe in the Puntland region of Somalia.

Somali officials say they have deployed helicopters to spray new swarms of desert locusts that are eating crops and threatening the country’s fragile food supply.

In an interview with VOA, Somalia’s Minister of Agriculture Sa’id Hussein Iid said that “hired Canadian experts will engage with the swarms by spraying bio-organic pesticides from the air, using three helicopters.”

Both Somali officials and the international aid agencies have been warning of a  humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia due to combined COVID-19, flooding, and locust which threatens the livestock and the food of millions of Somalis.