UN predicts worsening locust plague in Africa and the Middle East
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A second wave of desert locusts, projected to be 20 times the size of earlier swarms that the UN has called “unprecedented,” is expected to arrive in Africa and the Middle East over the summer.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that swarms the size of small cities are able to consume the same amount of food that half the population of African countries like Mali and Niger consumes in a single day.
Six million people in Ethiopia are now vulnerable to “large-scale crop, pasture, and forest-cover loss, worsening food and feed insecurity” following a successful breeding season by the locusts in Somalia that was energized by heavy rains, according to a new report.
Besides a large portion of East Africa, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan across the Middle East are expected to see major infestations when the new and larger swarms arrive in June or July at the beginning of the harvest season.
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