SENEGAL: Only a military-style operation with bases across west Africa can stop the worst locust invasion for 15 years, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade said yesterday as the insects swept into his capital.
As President Wade and delegates from a dozen west African nations met in Dakar to draw up a battle plan, the airborne pests appeared over some parts of the coastal city like dark snowflakes.
"The war is far from being won," Mr Wade told the conference, saying more planes and pesticides were needed now to battle the desert locusts.
"I stress the need for the mobilisation of the army, because for me this is a real war," he said.
As a first wave of insects arrived in Dakar, others were busy mating in nearby fields, threatening to unleash fresh devastation on vital crops when a new generation comes of age in about six weeks.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned last week that the locust swarms infesting countries from Mauritania to Chad could develop into a full-scale plague without additional foreign aid.- (Reuters)