Desert locust upsurge
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By the end of December 2020, about 18 percent of the USD 50 million appeal has been mobilized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in preparedness and anticipatory actions to control desert locust swarms and safeguard livelihoods in West Africa and the Sahel following the release of its crisis appeal in May 2020. FAO’s Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region (CLCPRO) secretariat and the countries at risk including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, the Niger and Senegal activated their respective contingency plans to cope with the threat of a desert locust invasion from East Africa. Monitoring teams were deployed, trainings were conducted and procurement was launched.
Although the imminent threat of an invasion from East Africa has significantly reduced since June 2020, FAO must remain vigilant and the capacity to conduct surveillance and coordination activities must be maintained. Early action to enhance preparedness in West Africa is especially important considering that 17.2 million people were projected to face acute food insecurity (Cadre Harmonisé Phase 3 and above) during the lean season (June–August 2020) in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, the Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, the Niger, Nigeria and Senegal according to the Cadre Harmonisé analysis released in March 2020. If an upsurge of desert locust had occurred in West Africa, this could have led to a significant decline in food security given compounding vulnerabilities (e.g. climate, conflict and COVID‑19 impacts).
FAO is continuing to monitor the potential desert locust threat in the Sahel. FAO’s CLCPRO, together with FAO’s Regional Resilience, Emergency and Rehabilitation Office for West Africa/Sahel (REOWA) based in Dakar, is working closely with at-risk countries in anticipatory actions such as training, pre-positioning of resources and initiating impact assessment scenarios as well as ground and aerial surveillance operations.