TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Millions of locusts descended on Antananarivo in Madagascar on Thursday, August 28, 2014, causing massive traffic disruptions and darkening the skies over the capital, turning the city into a modern-day biblical scene that is reminiscent of the Ten Plagues of Egypt during the lifetime of Moses.
According to Annie Monard, a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) official, it was not the first time that Antananarivo experienced such a scare. The locusts came to the city as changing weather patterns caused heat waves that forced the locusts out of their original habitats. As a result, they descended over Antananarivo like a cloud, numbering in their millions, in seek of food and shelter.
Climate change is thought to be a contributing factor to the phenomenon. Antananarivo witnessed a similar occurrence in April 2012, which was gotten so out of hand that the government had to declare a state of emergency.
To date, a joint effort between FAO and the Madagascan government has succeeded in controlling the plague of locust that has disrupted activities in the capital since it began on Thursday last week.