The Spanish government has reportedly dispatched seven aircraft to northern Africa to help control a plague of locusts that it threatening to engulf parts of southern Europe.
The Guardian reports that authorities are concerned that a massive swarm of the insects, the largest recorded in some 20 years, is currently threatening large parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, after two very wet years in the region.
Though the huge swarms are said to be more likely to affect other African countries such as Chad, Mali and Senegal, experts are predicting that if winds blow north instead of south, the swarms could arrive in southern parts of Europe.
Hence, Spain, along with other countries, has embarked on a spraying programme to try to control the locust population.
Clive Elliot, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, is quoted as saying: “Locusts are breeding in thousands of spots over large areas south of the Atlas Mountains. Despite intensive control operations on the ground and in the air, it is very difficult to find and treat all of the locust infestations in the vast and often remote desert areas.”
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad
