Locust plague still serious

2005-01-07 15:38

Rome - The UN food agency warned on Friday that the locust plagues to have hit north and west Africa remain "serious" and urged no let up in battling the swarms that have infested millions of hectares of farm land in the region.

"Despite recent improvements, the desert locust situation remains serious in western Africa where vigilance and intensive control operations are still needed," the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

While intensive eradication efforts continued last month in Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco, "late-forming swarms from summer breeding in the Sahel reinvaded parts of southeastern Mauritania and eastern Senegal," it said in a statement.

Some of those then moved south into Gambia and southern Senegal, reaching central Guinea Bissau, where the invasion has caused great concern, and potentially northern Guinea, the FAO said.

"Control actions are becoming less extensive than in the period August-December 2004," it said, adding that "all concerned should remain vigilant."

Countries in west and north-west Africa have made "great efforts" to combat the plagues orginating in the Sahel, but the scale of locust breeding and reinvasion will not be able to be determined until March or April, the FAO said.

- SAPA