A swarm of locusts engulfed Taiz City and its surrounding districts on Thursday from coastal areas and neighboring governorates. 

Activists and photographers documented the massive influx of the flying grasshoppers in Taiz and rural areas from the Horn of Africa through the governorate’s Red Sea coastal districts of Dhubab and Mokha. 

Yemenis, particularly farmers, fear that the locusts will endanger agricultural crops in Taiz, which has been besieged by the Houthis for nearly four years. 

Taiz and other governorates lack the means to protect agricultural crops from locusts, despite the existence of a government locust monitor and control center.