Environment

North Africa-Arabian Peninsula Brace for Locust Swarms

The Arabian Peninsula and parts of northeastern Africa are threatened with plagues of desert locusts because of unusually heavy rains brought on during recent weeks by two freak tropical cyclones and the intensifying El Niño phenomenon in the Pacific.

The Food and Agriculture Organization warned that the extreme weather conditions have moistened the soil around Yemen and the Horn of Africa, providing a favorable environment for locusts to lay their eggs.

Sprouting vegetation during the remainder of this year in the typically arid region is likely to provide food and shelter for the emerging young locusts.

The United Nations agency cautioned that two generations of the ravenous insects could swarm through the end of 2015 in coastal areas of Sudan, northern Eritrea, southeastern Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.