Desert Locust Update: Swarms Cross Ocean to Invade Cape Verde Islands
(FAO, Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture (GIEWS), Oct. 11, 2004)
Bulletin: Desert Locust swarms are moving out of West Africa. Several waves of immature swarms invaded three of the Cape Verde islands last week, crossing approximately 385 miles (620 km) of the Atlantic Ocean, a major water barrier to their spread. Other swarms have recently reached southwest Libya near Ghat and the Algerian border, northwest Mauritania and southern Western Sahara. Control operations were immediately undertaken. Numerous immature swarms continue to form in southern Mauritania, northern Senegal, Mali, Niger and northern Burkina Faso.
Many of the swarms are large and dense, and are moving toward the north and northwest. More swarms will form this month in the Sahel and a major redistribution of populations from West Africa to Northwest Africa is expected to occur this month. Aerial and ground control operations have treated some 875,000 hectares so far this summer in West Africa. In an unrelated development, local breeding is in progress on the Red Sea coast in Yemen where hoppers are forming groups in a few places.
Photo: Courtesy FAO/GIEWS
Crop damage near Ouadane,
Northern Mauritania (April 5, 2004)