Darfur now threatened with locust plague

An invasion of locusts that has destroyed millions of acres of crops in North Africa is heading toward Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, a UN agency warned today.

No swarms have yet been reported in Darfur, which is struggling to cope with a conflict that has displaced more than one million people, but the risk of infestation is high, the Rome-based UN Food and Agricultural Organisation said.

At least 16 million acres have already been affected in the Maghreb and the vast West Africa region known as the Sahel, while 15.5 million acres had already been chemically treated, according to Sid Ali Moumene, an Algerian official heading his country’s efforts to control the insects.

“This is the worst occurrence of locusts in the last 15 years. We don’t have a plague now, but we’re heading down that road,” said Keith Cressman, a locust forecasting officer at the UN agency.

The Maghreb region of North Africa – Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya – was the first to be seriously affected this year by locusts. But a drop in numbers is finally being seen after intensive pesticide treatment and swarm migration, said Cressman.

However, the swarms are currently migrating from north-west to West Africa, threatening Sudan and Chad.

“Now the rains have stopped and conditions are becoming dry in north-west Africa,” Cressman said.

“Any locusts that escaped the control operations there are moving over to West Africa. In the next couple of weeks, the situation will probably return pretty much to normal in north-west Africa, but it will get worse in West Africa.”

Desert locusts are a migratory pest, Cressman said, adding that they shift locations once the wet conditions required for their breeding cease to exist.

Locusts are present every year in Africa, but this year’s swarms are especially big due to prolonged periods of heavy rain last autumn.