HIGHLIGHTS
• During the past six months, the Sahel in West Africa has been facing the most serious Desert Locust threat since 2005. More than 50 million people were potentially affected in Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
• The situation is now gradually returning to normal in the northern Sahel where breeding has ended in Mali, Niger and Chad.
As a result of control operations, only a few swarms formed in Niger and Chad and only small groups of adults moved to Algeria and Libya. Ground control operations are in progress in Niger, Mauritania and Morocco.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) requested USD 10 million in June 2012 for urgent action to coordinate the emergency campaign and allow national locusts control units to undertake the required operations.
• With the USD 7.2 million received so far (from Belgium, the Central Emergency Response Fund [CERF], France, United Kingdom and USA), FAO ensures overall campaign coordination and technical support through:
o A Regional Strategic Response Framework for the Desert Locust threat in the Sahel.
o Regular update of the Regional Action Plan.
o Strengthened the operational capacity of national survey and control teams in Niger, Chad and Mali.
o Triangulation of pesticides (airlifting pesticides from a country in the region with available stocks to a recipient country).
o Enhanced preparedness for potential upscale of interventions in Niger, Mauritania, Chad, Mali and Senegal.
• Bilateral assistance of USD 1 million to Niger has allowed the country to further strengthen its survey and control capacity.
• Current funding gap is USD 1.8 million. Consequences of unmet requirements: reduction of field survey teams, less control, increased risk to crops, and more locusts will move to other countries.