Locusts have invaded Mauritania's capital Nouakchott for the third time in as many months, forming a massive new swarm munching through what remains of the city's greenery, residents said on Sunday.
West Africa's worst locust infestation for more than a decade has wreaked havoc in some of the world's poorest nations, causing substantial damage to grain crops across thousands of hectares (acres) in a region where many people are subsistence farmers.
Children ran through Nouakchott's dusty streets beating the air with sticks to try to chase the insects away; older residents looked on at the locusts with resigned dismay.
"This is becoming our daily lot," said Alpha, whose city- centre vegetable patch was ravaged by the airborne pests.
"We have to leave it to Allah because there's nothing we can do against such a phenomenon," said Zeinab, tending to plants in a neighbouring plot.
Nouakchott's main soccer pitch and President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya's palace gardens were eaten by the first locust invasion in early August.
The insects have destroyed 40-50 percent of Mauritania's crops and up to 60 percent of its pastures, according to Environment Minister Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou. Only an eighth of the affected area in Mauritania has been sprayed with pesticide.
Foreign donors have been stumping up cash to fight the plague but several countries in West Africa are still badly short of aircraft and chemicals, with Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Senegal the hardest hit, officials say.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) sounded the alarm a year ago about swarms in the region. Aid agencies, foreign donors and African governments have since all accused each other of being too slow to act.
New swarms - one reported to be 70 km (44 miles) long - have moved into north-western Mauritania in the past week and are also encroaching on Western Sahara and the Cape Verde islands, the FAO said on Friday.