Yemen's fresh locust swarm brings bumper crop of local delicacy

Desert locusts have inundated Yemen’s rebel-held capital and surrounding regions this week, devastating farms but also providing a bumper crop of this Yemeni delicacy.

In the city of Sanaa, crowds of people chased the swarms of locusts using special nets. Children, adults and the elderly took to the streets, hunting the swarming locusts. Men stood on rooftops with large nets, scooping the insects out of the air.

This is the second major swarm to hit the Yemeni capital in recent weeks, with another passing through in June.

"Locusts are a nutritious source of food – they contain a great deal of vitamins and proteins," Amer Ahmed, a resident who took part in the locust hunt, told The National. "We hunt it and go back home to cook it with oil and eat it with rice and with bread. It is really delicious."

Residents of Sanaa told The National that traders had gathered around the public market to sell sacks of locusts. Traders said that a kilo of locusts cost only 700 Yemeni rial (Dh10).

Locals and traders said that locusts were a good remedy for numerous health problems, as well as being a good source of protein.

“We know from our fathers and grandfathers that locusts are used to treat various conditions such as diabetes,” one man in Sanaa central market told a local TV station.

But the locusts also cause devastation.

Farmers in the district of Hamdan, Khawlan and Bani Al Harith north of Sanaa said that the swarms had devoured their crops. The famed Yemeni grape farmers in the area who cultivate the country’s best vines said they had been particularly affected.

"Huge swarms attacked our farms, devouring every single green tree. All our crops were horribly damaged," one farmer from the Hamdan region told The National. "We stood