UN chief calls for International joint effort on locust outbreak
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for intensive international efforts to combat the locust outbreak. He said that the international community should come forward to deal with this threat. About 20 countries are affected by this problem from West Africa to India. Locusts have destroyed crores of hectares of crops in the affected countries.
“I appeal to the international community to take immediate action on this issue,” Guterres said at an event in the Ethiopian capital on Saturday. We still have a chance to deal with this problem. The problem of locusts in Ethiopia and East Africa is associated with climate change and is getting worse day by day. Warming of sea water directly means increase in the number of cyclones. This condition plays a positive role in the breeding of locusts. Desert locusts are considered the most dangerous of about a dozen species.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently stated that the Horn of Africa region is one of the three most affected desert areas in the world by locusts. The easternmost part of the African continent is called the Horn of Africa because the region looks like a horn on the world map. The region consists of Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia. According to the FAO, locusts are now moving from Ethiopia and Somalia to Kenya. Experts say that if they are not stopped soon, they will soon reach Uganda and Sudan.
