Press release
U.S.-backed aircraft attack locusts in Senegal, Mauritania
ST. LOUIS, Senegal, October 13, 2004 – U.S.-funded airplanes took
to the skies Wednesday on the second day of a campaign to battle locusts along
border areas of Senegal and Mauritania in what is being described as the worst
regional locust infestation in decades.
On Tuesday, pilots based in St. Louis sprayed locusts covering 2,000 hectares
of rice-growing land near Senegal’s northern town of Mbilor and another
3,200 hectares in Mauritania’s southern Njorol region (one hectare is equivalent
to 2.4 acres).
“Every day these planes get in the air is crucial to help the people
of the Sahel, and we are off to a good start,” said Fodé Sarr of
Senegal’s Ministry of Agriculture who is working with Mauritanian counterparts
and a group of disaster experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) in St. Louis.
Together, civilian and military officials from Senegal and Mauritania and USAID’s
Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) make up a Joint Operations Cell (JOC)
that meets each night to make decisions about priority areas to spray the following
morning.
“The locust infestation we’re experiencing now in the sub-region
is probably the worst in 20 years,” said Amadou Diallo of Mauritania’s
Ministry of Agriculture. “The damage caused by the swarms and larvae on
corps and pastureland are indeed worrisome.” He added that thanks to several
partners, particularly USAID, the JOC’s capacity is being reinforced to
better combat the locusts.
DART leader Regina Davis said spraying runs are decided each evening after
“prospection” teams have tracked swarms of locusts and recorded the
location where they roost for the night using global positioning system (GPS)
technology. Locations are decided and the planes attack at dawn. “On the
first morning, the planes hit top priority swarms identified by Senegal and Mauritania,”
she said. “This needs to happen every day.”
Provision of the six “Air Tractor” spraying planes, pesticides
and communications equipment are components of a $3.2 million assistance package
announced on September 29 by Roger Winter, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau
of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID. Each plane can spray
up to 2,500 hectares per day. The aircraft will be in the region for an initial
30 days.
U.S. Government humanitarian assistance to combat the present locust emergency
currently totals over $7.4 million. The new funding is part of a regional approach
to combat the locusts that builds on the U.S. Government assistance channeled
earlier through the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and
bilaterally with regional governments to fight the spread of locusts in West Africa
and the Maghreb.
Just ahead of a visit to the region late last month, Assistant Administrator
Winter deployed a team of experts with experience from the last locust emergency
in the late 1980s. These technical professionals will support the regional response
and are based in Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Niger.
The U.S. Government has worked in the area of locust control for over a decade.
USAID, through the Assistance for Emergency Locust/Grasshopper Abatement (AELGA)
program, has actively provided training in emergency/transboundary pest control
and research into developing alternative control mechanisms. During the locust
plague from 1986 through 1989, the U.S. Government, mainly through USAID, contributed
more than $60 million to a $300 million, multi-donor campaign. Since then, AELGA
has worked in areas of plague prevention, pest management, environmental protection,
pesticide disposal, awareness and training to best handle future locust invasions.
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