Agro-pastoral Areas at High-risk of Locust Invasion in East Africa

ENA Addis Abeba May 18/2020 The risk of desert locust invasion to agro-pastoral crops in the East Africa is still high due to the existing wind movement in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) warned.

In a press release ICPAC sent to ENA, climatic conditions suitable for desert locust development are forecasted to be highly favorable in northern South Sudan, western and central Ethiopia, Somalia and northwestern Kenya.

The country with most apposite conditions for invasion is South Sudan due to a combination of suitable climatic and ecological settings.

ICPAC revealed that the locust situation remains serious in Eastern Africa with agro-pastoral framings at high risk of locust invasion due to wind movements and above normal rainfall in most crop areas in the southern and equatorial part of the region.

Wind direction and speeds, which greatly determine swarm movement is forecasted to be southerly and southwesterly in Somalia. This makes Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, southern Kenya and southern Somalia to be on lowest risk of an invasion.

In the invasion areas of desert locust in the Eastern Africa region, the conditions for desert locust development and reproduction are becoming less suitable as compared to January-March 2020.