A PLAGUE of locusts is threatening to descend on 2 million refugees embroiled in a humanitarian crisis in the strife-torn province of Darfur in western Sudan.
Swarms of desert locusts are massing in north-west Africa and starting to fly south to breeding grounds in the Sahelian heartlands of Mauritania, Senegal and Mali. Once the summer rains begin, they will lay eggs across a swathe of Africa stretching from the Atlantic coast to Darfur.
Between $10 million and $20 million will be needed to contain the threat by spraying pesticide, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. If the money fails to materialise, Africa could see its worst locust plague since 1987-89,…
