Tesfanews has produced a report providing an official view of how the campaign against the massive threat from desert locusts is progressing.

This key finding suggests the problem is being dealt with:

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation suggests that the battle is far from over. The crops may not have yet been ‘saved’ nor gange lands secured.

This is what the FAO’s latest update (Tuesday 28th January) says:

“Eritrea. Ground control operations are underway against hopper groups that are fledging and forming adult groups on the northern and central coast. At least one swarm arrived on the southern coast near Assab on the 20th either from Yemen or Ethiopia.”

This plague is still very serious. As the FAO explained:

“Locusts will increase further as a new generation of breeding starts in the Horn of Africa

“The current Desert Locust situation remains extremely alarming and represents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa. This will be further exacerbated by new breeding that has commenced, which will cause more locust infestations.”