UN increasingly concerned over outbreak of crop-eating locust in Horn of Africa: Spokesman

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 01 (APP):The United Nations has voiced heightened concern over the current desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa that is destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of crops.

“In the Horn of Africa, the UN is increasingly concerned about the current desert locust outbreak, which is the worst to strike Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years and the worst infestation that Kenya has experienced in 70 years,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters at the regular noon briefing at UN headquarters in New York.

“A small swarm of locusts can actually consume the equivalent of food for 35,000 people in just one day,” he pointed out to highlight the gravity of the situation.

Djibouti and Eritrea, the spokesman said, were also being affected.

Dujarric said the UN chief had tweeted, “the outbreak is making the dire food security situation in the region even worse.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) has already appealed for urgent funding to tackle the outbreak, he said, noting that the situation now threatens to become a humanitarian crisis.

“FAO has already mobilized 15.4 million U.S. dollars of the 76 million dollars requested for the five countries, but expects the needs will rise amid concern that the outbreak will spread to other countries, in particular South Sudan and Uganda,” the spokesman added.

“The agency is also working to monitor the situation in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen for any developments,” he said.