Desert locust situation 'extremely alarming' in Horn of Africa: UN spokesman
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E-mail Xinhua, March 13, 2020
A United Nations spokesman said Thursday that the desert locust situation remains extremely alarming in the Horn of Africa.
"Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that the desert locust situation remains extremely alarming in the Horn of Africa," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said at the daily news briefing.
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in Africa and the easternmost projection of the African continent. It denotes the region containing the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.
"Widespread breeding is in progress and new swarms are starting to form in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia," he said.
"The UN's humanitarian arm says this is an unprecedented threat to food security and added that an extended response will be necessary to safeguard people's livelihoods," said the spokesman.
"Aerial and ground locust control operations by the governments are ongoing with support from the Food Agriculture Organization, which says it has now increased its original appeal to 138 million U.S. dollars, for which 107 million dollars has already been pledged," he added.
Hundreds of billions of locusts are swarming through various regions of East Africa and South Asia in what is regarded to be the most severe infestation for 25 years.
These locusts, which reportedly eat their own body weight in food every single day, are breeding so rapidly that these already startling numbers could well grow 400-fold by June.
This outbreak poses a serious threat to crops, livelihoods and food security, with more funding urgently required to tackle the escalating situation.
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