War, Famine and Death

Along with other problems, the desert locust is back again

They covered the whole face of the earth, wasting all things. The grass of the earth was devoured, and whatsoever fruits were on the trees which the hail had left. And there remained not anything that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth in all Egypt.

--Exodus 10:15

Those same locusts that plagued ancient Egypt and the Israelites --known to science as Schistocerca gregaria forsk--were back again. This time, the country under attack was Ethiopia. Last week agriculture experts reported that sections of the country's northern provinces were being devastated by 33 separate locust swarms, ranging in size from 5 to 40 sq. mi. Neighboring Somalia, meanwhile, reported 17 giant swarms of the buzzing, shell-covered creatures, which can sweep 100 sq. mi. of farm land clean overnight. Jean Roy, an expert in locust control operations for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), described the situation as "the worst I have known in 35 years."

The FAO proposed that Ethiopia and Somalia each declare states of emergency to combat the locusts. Cooperation in the battle against the insects seemed unlikely, since the two nations were still at odds because of an abortive Somali attempt to seize the Ogaden region; Ethiopia had repulsed that invasion with Russian and Cuban help. Meanwhile, the migrating locusts were slowly eating their way toward mountainous country in northern Ethiopia, where it would be much harder to locate and attack them with insecticides. The desert locust breeds every six weeks. If the swarms were not soon brought under control, Roy warned, their offspring could create an even more devastating plague as they spread through Africa, the Middle East and even the Indian subcontinent.

As if locusts were not enough of a problem for Ethiopian Leader Mengistu Haile Mariam, his country was also faced once again with mass famine. In Ethiopia's Wollo and Tigre provinces, crops had been scourged by a deadly fungus known as ergot. The fungus, called St. Anthony's fire in medieval days, creates an unholy dilemma. Anyone who eats the infected grain risks the danger of a circulatory disorder that eventually blocks blood flow and causes gangrene. The alternative is starvation. FAO experts believe that the famine is potentially as crippling as the one that Ethiopia suffered in 1973, when an estimated 200,000 people died.

The Soviet Union, which has provided Mengistu's regime with nearly $900 million in military assistance for his wars against Somalia and secessionist rebels in Eritrea, has not done anything remotely comparable to alleviate the internal catastrophes. As usual, it is Western nations working with the FAO that are providing emergency aid to feed starving Ethiopians by airlift before rains make the affected provinces unreachable. The U.S. alone has contributed nearly $2.5 million in the past six months to help Ethiopians.

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