Massive locust swarm provides a desert bounty in central Yemen - in pictures

They have blighted the skies and damaged crops as far north as Jordan this year, but to some they are desert bounty.

Yemenis have been cashing in on a bumper surge in locusts. Traditionally roasted, the insects can be a vital summer staple in times of food shortages.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation warned of outbreaks of Red Sea locusts in February. And rains from cyclones Mekunu in May and Luban last October triggered a mass breeding of locusts near the Yemen-Oman border in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter.

In January, Abu Dhabi's Al Dhafra area was covered in a cloud of the flying insects.