UN sounds alarm on desert locust outbreak in Rajasthan, Horn of Africa

A small swarm eats as much food daily as about 35,000 people, according to the FAO

A desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa and the Indo-Pakistan border remains “serious and threatening,” the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization said.

“Breeding will continue along both sides of the Red Sea, which could be supplemented by the arrival of a few small swarms on the Eritrean coast from Ethiopia, causing a further increase in locust numbers,” the FAO said in a bulletin.

Control operations in October treated 7,000 hectares in Ethiopia and Sudan. India and Pakistan treated 82,944 hectares and 22,650 hectares respectively. An increased number of swarms formed during October in India and Pakistan, the