The United Nations agency leading the fight against a desert locust upsurge in East Africa will lodge a new appeal for funding next week, warning the plague could still cause a food crisis.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) plans to ask its partners for around $110 million on May 20, according to the agency’s Nairobi-based Resilience Team Leader Cyril Ferrand.
Funding needs may increase to $450 million as the FAO prepares to fight swarms seen moving to the Sahel and Pakistan, according to Ferrand.
The agency has so far received an estimated $130 million in payments and pledges.
“We may need over two years to tame this enemy,” Ferrand said. “We’re in the middle of the fight.”
The new fund-raising round comes as FAO reports gains in combating the outbreak in countries from Ethiopia to Kenya, Somalia and Yemen, despite the coronavirus fallout which has hampered the delivery of supplies.”
Some 720 000 tons of cereal, enough to feed five million people, had been saved by efforts against the pests so far, FAO said in a report published on Monday. – Bloomberg