President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania has issued a red alert on all locusts, effectively denying them landing rights in any part of Tanzania.
In the presidential decree that also banned any media station from covering any activity by locusts, the president said that he would not tolerate any foreign army in Tanzania, be it of people or of locusts, and any attempt to get in to Tanzania would be regarded as a hostile act.
He also said that the approach by Rwanda to build a wall to keep off locusts and that of Kenya and Uganda to spray locusts would not solve the problem.
“What Kenyans and Ugandans are doing is very stupid. Walking up to locusts and requesting to spray them cannot solve the problem because they will just say no. The best approach is to deny them entry from the word go.”
Locusts were seen helplessly overflying Tanzania with no place to land, permission to feed or the rights to lay eggs. Even locusts born in Tanzania or the Tanzanian airspace would not be given any citizenship, making matters complicated for the insects that have already claimed the job of Kenya’s cabinet secretary in charge of Agriculture.
If successful, a similar decree will be issued against poverty, joblessness and corona virus.
Animal rights experts have protested the move.
