West Africa is facing a worsening locust crisis as more swarms of the crop-devouring insects arrive in Mauritania, Mali and Niger, with the threat of serious damage hanging over several other countries, the United Nations food agency FAO reported on Wednesday.

In its latest update on the potential plague, the Food and Agriculture Organization said it had so far received from international donors at most less than a quarter of the funding commitments -- 14 million US dollars out of between 58 million dollars and 83 million dollars needed to control the upsurge.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf and former Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairman of the African Union Commission, are visiting Mauritania for a first-hand look at the locust swarms andthe damage they cause.

With a tiny fraction of the average swarm capable of eating as much food in one day as 2,500 people, FAO has throughout the year issued urgent appeals for international aid to stop the situation from developing into a plague.

The agency said that in Mauritania swarms are moving from the north towards the south and the first adult locusts of the summer generation could start to appear by the end of August, while in neighboring Senegal swarms and hopper bands, newly hatched wingless locusts, were present along the Senegal River Valley and in the Ferlo Valley.

More that 22,000 hectares of infestations have been treated in control operations in both countries in the past few weeks.

The main reason for the enormous numbers of locusts is that a series of rains have fallen, first in the Sahel during the summer of 2003, and then in Northwest Africa during winter/spring, FAO said. This created favorable ecological conditions for locust development and allowed at least four generations to breed one after the other.

Source: Xinhua