Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:14 pm
The UN has said that if an Ethiopian locust infestation is not brought under control then the crop-devouring insect could “invade” neighbouring countries.
The Ethiopian government has called for “immediate action” to deal with the problem affecting four of the country’s nine states, a UN statement said.
In northern Amhara state some farmers have lost “nearly 100%” of their crop of the staple grain, teff , it added.
Efforts to control the infestation have so far not been effective.
The authorities’ work has also been affected by “ongoing insecurity” in some areas of the country, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
“We need to act fast and mobilise the required resources urgently to scale up control and preventive measures,” FAO Ethiopia representative Fatouma Seid said.
Last week, the government said it had sent planes to the affected areas to try to deal with the problem from the air.
Overall, the desert locusts have devoured crops and pasture across a swathe of land covering parts of the Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and Somali regional states.
The FAO estimated that the insects were eating 1.8 million tonnes of vegetation a day across 350 sq km (135 sq miles) of the country.
If additional control measures fail then the locusts “could continue moving within Ethiopia and invade” north-eastern Kenya, parts of Eritrea, and Sudan’s southern coast, the FAO said.
The locusts are thought to have spread from Yemen three months ago.
Nationwide protests, held in all 16 regional capitals, had been staged by the NDC on Tuesday, demanding an independent audit…
Consequently, the UAE announced a set of new humanitarian projects in Chad and pledged $10.25 million to the United Nations…
Loveness Bhitoni has been picking baobab fruit from the gigantic trees surrounding his farm in Zimbabwe since childhood, to vary…
A terrorist attack by the Al-Qaeda affiliate group Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin-or JNIM-occurred in Bamako, Mali, early Tuesday, September…
The Afrika Tikkun youth development agency has teamed up with Microsoft South Africa to launch the ICT Academy - Going…
Over a year after the fighting in Sudan between the Sudanese army and RSF paramilitaries, civilians are caught in a…
This website uses cookies.