ReliefWeb

SUMMER RAINS DECLINED

The Desert Locust situation continued to remain calm during September. Only low numbers of solitarious adults persisted in Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, and Yemen. Few hoppers were seen in parts of northwest Mauritania and in the Red Sea coastal plain of Yemen. In the Western Desert of Egypt, biological control treated 20 ha of one farm that had groups of hopper and adult. Light to moderate rainfall continued in the northern Sahel but was declined during the second half of the month from Mauritania to western Eritrea, and vegetation started to dry out in many places. Similarly, the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon finish in Indo-Pakistan border during the last week of September. During the forecast, locust numbers will continue to decrease in the summer breeding areas but are likely to increase slightly in current areas of northwest Mauritania and in the Red Sea coast of Yemen and start to appear in the coastal plains in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and maybe Eritrea and Egypt from November onwards. Consecutively, the locusts will continue to be remain well below threatening levels and no significant developments are likely.