business swarms of locusts are threatening more countries in eastern africa united nations food and agricultural organization warns people's livelihoods are at risk it's the worst invasion in 70 years. the locusts have devastated tens of thousands of acres of farmland destroying crops and pasture the organization says drought has already affected millions of people across the region the swarms will only worsen the situation kenya ethiopia and somalia worst hit officials say aerial spraying is the only solution that works but that's impossible in conflict ridden somalia south sudan and uganda are also would raise and swarms have been cited in yemen and oman will join joins us now from nairobi to tell us more about the situation what sort of food security risk is this actually posing. well ben if you look at the eastern africa region already the areas that have been affected by the locust invasion are areas that really do struggle with food insecurity and i would put it that way because we're looking at the northeastern parts of all of kenya and also areas in somalia that have already been affected by drought

some other stories making headlines this hour the united nations food and agriculture organization and the world food programme a calling for more funding to deal with swarms of locusts in east africa kenya ethiopia and somalia hardest hit and you swarms are expected to form in the coming weeks the u.n. spokesman says prevention would be much cheaper than dealing with the impact if little is done of. russia wants to lift restrictions on the export of diamonds from the central african republic moscow is chair of the kimberly process and $81.00 nation body which certifies that diamond exports do not fund conflict the african nation was hit with a diamond export ban in 2013 which was later relaxed to allow limited sales. and a doomsday vault for seeds continues to grow deep in the arctic prince charles sending cowslips and the cherokee nation adding sacred corn the facility was launched in 2008 with the a move safeguarding bio diversity in case of a global disaster it now has over a 1000000 varieties of seeds. the world's largest says it's stepping up its green efforts by pledging to hire

swarms of locusts are threatening more countries in eastern africa the united nations' food and agriculture organization warns people's livelihoods are at risk it's the worst invasion in 70 years. the desert locusts have devastated tens of thousands of acres of farmland destroying crops and the organization says drought has already affected millions of people across the region kenya ethiopia and somalia are worst hit officials say spraying insecticides is the only solution that works but that's impossible in conflict ridden somalia south sudan and uganda also at risk swarms have also been cited in eritrea yemen and all moms feel germany is facing odd nuclear energy hoping to replace it with wind and solar in the long run but now it's facing a major setback after a generous government support is waning and expansion plans come back legal complaints by angry residents as well as the approval times of brought the sector to a near standstill it's a huge crisis for the german wind industry 2 large wind turbine makers have already folded. there are still some big construction sites for wind parks left in germ

control organization for eastern africa and in nairobi via skype we've got cyril ferrand who is resilience team leader for eastern africa at the food and agriculture organization of the united nations stephen let's start with you why are locusts swarming in such great numbers this year in particular i think you this is especially where the locust have bred to very successfully on that had sequenced and also in yemen and have had a very good season and that's where the numbers are very high and we expect that it will increase in the coming times when you say they've had a very good season why is that stephen is that is this in any way linked to climate change or as far as the life cycle of the of the locust is concerned is is this just cyclical is just the weather conditions which we call climate change position sites while redoubling the desert there with seasons and vegetation all over it was that we had a lot of rains in the region stephen why do locusts swarm in the 1st place. a single such as that not normally just. but when they get together that's what we call a swarm of locusts gets together with that as and they become. once they become going to get is that's when they star

between the who, the world health organization, the world organisation for animal health and the food and agriculture organisation, wh0,0ie and faq, of the united nationshe prime minister confirms that the whole of the high speed rail plan, hs2, will go ahead, with the first trains running by the end of the decade. the british businessman linked to 11 coronovirus cases says he's fully recovered but still in quarantine, after catching the virus, now officially named covid—19, in singapore. poor manufacturing figures, particuarly in the car industry, mean there was no economic growth in the last three months of last year. and in sport... another club makes a move toward safe standing in the premier league as manchester united apply to install rail seating at old trafford. a trial for around fifteen hundred fans could take place later in the season. manchester city's premier league game against west ham has been re—arranged for 19th february. the game was called off on sunday because of storm ciara. james anderson's been left out of england's squad for their tour of sri lanka next month as he recovers from a cracked rib. opener keaton jennings and wicketk