Drones to spy on then spray mosquitoes

Kenya is to wage drone war on one of the world’s biggest killers, sending out a fleet of remote-controlled aircraft to hunt down and eradicate swarms of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The drones, armed with surveillance equipment and malarial larvicide, will be flown to remote areas to map out breeding sites and kill larvae by the million. They can spray 60ha a day compared with 0.6ha manually. President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled the drones in the coastal area of Kilifi County. He is the chairman of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance, which is seeking to wipe out the disease by 2030. Malaria is a big killer in Africa. In 2019 it was the seventh-biggest cause of death behind HIV/aids, diarrhoeal diseases, heart disease, stroke, respiratory infections and childbirth.