Sudan: Desert Locust might constitute a natural disaster

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forests announced that the Desert Locust situation has developed rapidly to the point of a national threat during January the breeding in the winter breeding areas in Sudan. The ministry also expects the emergence of a new generation in the first weeks of February due to the invasion of additional swarms to the green areas in Red Sea state coming from neighbouring countries.

The UN has called for international help to fight huge swarms of desert locusts sweeping through east Africa. The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), called for aid to “avert any threats to food security, livelihoods, malnutrition”.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are all struggling with “unprecedented” and “devastating” swarms of the food-devouring insects, the FAO has said.

In the monthly bulletin on the desert locust in January, the General Administration of Plants Protection at the Ministry of Agriculture indicated that ground and air control operations targeted mature and immature swarms as well as both adult and premature groups.

The bulletin indicated that the environmental conditions remained suitable for the breeding and development of the desert locust. ”We have carried out surveys in the summer breeding areas in the northern state and we found mature and immature Solitary units with low density,” the bulletin added. Therefore, the Ministry recommended intensifying survey and close monitoring operations.

The bulletin confirmed the survey covered 75,200 hectares of which 18,714 hectares were treated using 9,382 litres of concentrated pesticides. It also revealed that during January the environmental conditions remained favourable for the development of the Desert Locust along the Red Sea coast where the vegetation is green and the soil is moist, which increased the opportunities for breeding and development of the Desert Locust.

Mice plague Darfur

Mice have become a threat to the livelihood in a significant part of Darfur over the last couple of months, in particular, in East Jebel Marra in El Wahda locality El Malam in South Darfur and Tawila locality in North Darfur.

Last week a resident from El Malam told Radio Dabanga “mice have threatened our livelihood, they eat even the trees. They eat everything they find. They are all over the place inside our house, farming everywhere you look,” he said.

“We have completely failed to control the mice, despite using all pesticides and it does not affect them at all. We need help or we will be left with nothing,” the resident said.

A leader of displaced people in Tawila, Omda Mukhtar Bush told Radio Dabanga that the mice caused the failure of the agricultural season in Tawila locality in North Darfur. He said that residents have noticed the increasing problem with mice from the beginning of autumn until the harvest.