diff --git a/searxng_extra/update/update_currencies.py b/searxng_extra/update/update_currencies.py
index e51692e7..41ee2fa0 100755
--- a/searxng_extra/update/update_currencies.py
+++ b/searxng_extra/update/update_currencies.py
@@ -19,10 +19,11 @@ import json
 from os.path import join
 
 from searx import searx_dir
-from searx.locales import LOCALE_NAMES
+from searx.locales import LOCALE_NAMES, locales_initialize
 from searx.engines import wikidata, set_loggers
 
 set_loggers(wikidata, 'wikidata')
+locales_initialize()
 
 # ORDER BY (with all the query fields) is important to keep a deterministic result order
 # so multiple invokation of this script doesn't change currencies.json
diff --git a/searxng_extra/update/update_engine_descriptions.py b/searxng_extra/update/update_engine_descriptions.py
index 5b73fd39..f3d6e7fa 100755
--- a/searxng_extra/update/update_engine_descriptions.py
+++ b/searxng_extra/update/update_engine_descriptions.py
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@ from langdetect.lang_detect_exception import LangDetectException
 
 from searx.engines import wikidata, set_loggers
 from searx.utils import extract_text, match_language
-from searx.locales import LOCALE_NAMES
+from searx.locales import LOCALE_NAMES, locales_initialize
 from searx import searx_dir
 from searx.utils import gen_useragent
 import searx.search
 import searx.network
 
 set_loggers(wikidata, 'wikidata')
+locales_initialize()
 
 SPARQL_WIKIPEDIA_ARTICLE = """
 SELECT DISTINCT ?item ?name