成群的蝗虫摧毁了肯尼亚北部的部分地区

成群的蝗虫摧毁了肯尼亚北部的部分地区

The branches on trees around Kenya’s northern town of Lodwar have been stripped bare of leaves, bending downwards under the weight of voracious young locusts.

在肯尼亚北部小镇洛德瓦附近，贪婪的小蝗虫把树枝压得弯曲不堪，树叶已经被剥光了。

Numbers of locusts exploded in East Africa and the Red Sea region in late 2019, exacerbated by atypical weather patterns amplified by climate change. Swarms of insects flew west from Yemen and this year reached Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

2019年底，非洲东部和红海地区的蝗虫数量暴增，气候变化加剧了非典型天气模式。成群的昆虫从也门向西飞行，今年到达了肯尼亚、索马里和埃塞俄比亚。

The new generation has hatched in Turkana, Kenya’s poorest region. The young locusts are eating everything in sight and when their wings mature the swarms will be able to travel up to 80 miles in a day.

新一代蝗虫已经在肯尼亚最贫穷的图尔卡纳孵化。这些年轻的蝗虫正在吃掉眼前的一切，当它们的翅膀成熟后，这些蝗虫能够在一天内飞行80英里。

Locusts are seen after devastating a tomato farm near the town of Lodwar, Turkana county, Kenya.Reuters“The locusts have come to destabilize an already bad situation,” said Daniel Kirura, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Turkana.

在肯尼亚图尔卡纳县洛德瓦尔镇附近，蝗虫毁坏了一个番茄农场。“蝗虫破坏了本已糟糕的局势。”联合国粮农组织驻图尔卡纳负责人丹尼尔·基鲁拉(Daniel Kirura)说。

A Turkana boy tries to chase away a locust swarm near the town of Lodwar, Turkana county, Kenya.

图尔卡纳县洛德瓦尔镇附近，一个图尔卡纳男孩试图赶走蝗虫群，肯尼亚。

Kirura fears the swarms will spread quickly and said teams are working frantically to spray them with insecticide before they become airborne.

基鲁拉担心蜂群会迅速扩散，并说小组正在疯狂地工作，在它们飞散之前喷洒杀虫剂。

“Within one week they may mature to swarms that may fly away,” Kirura said. “Our wish is to control them before they leave Turkana.”

“在一周内，它们可能会成熟，然后成群的飞走，”基鲁拉说。“我们的愿望是在他们离开图尔卡纳之前控制他们。”

Turkana is a vast, dry scrubland in northwest Kenya that borders Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia. Residents say the insects are devastating farmland and grazing areas.

图尔卡纳是肯尼亚西北部一片广阔、干燥的灌木丛，与乌干达、南苏丹和埃塞俄比亚接壤。当地居民说，这些昆虫破坏了农田和牧区。

“These things that jump up and down came here two days ago and have eaten all the trees,” said Michael, near Turkana’s capital Lodwar.

在图尔卡纳首都洛德瓦尔附近的迈克尔说：“这些上下跳跃的东西两天前来到这里，吃掉了所有的树。”