Desert locust upsurge: Progress report on the response in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen | January–April 2021

The fight against desert locust in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen has been raging for sixteen months – since January 2020. Governments, FAO and partners are responding to the worst upsurge in seventy years. An extraordinarily effective system has been put in place, from forecasting to responding, and from short-term coordinating to preparing for the medium and longer term.

Thanks to generous contributions from 29 partners, in addition to FAO’s own resources, close to USD 219 million have been mobilized towards FAO’s desert locust crisis appeal for the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen. This is 95 percent of the total funding requirement, as per the revised appeal launched on 16 December 2020, covering the period January 2020 to June 2021. With this funding, more than 2 million hectares of land have been treated since January 2020, saving the livelihoods and protecting the food security of 36.9 million people.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations