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Locust Swarms Due in June Raise Risk of Food Crisis

  • FAO to ask for about $110 million in fresh finance on May 20
  • Weather may push locust swarm into West and North Africa
A local resident shakes a bottle filled with pebbles at a swarm of desert locusts in Mathiakani, Kitui County, Kenya.

A local resident shakes a bottle filled with pebbles at a swarm of desert locusts in Mathiakani, Kitui County, Kenya.

Photographer: Patrick Meinhardt/Bloomberg
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The United Nations agency leading the fight against a desert-locust upsurge in East Africa will lodge a new appeal for funding next week, warning the plague could still cause a food crisis.

The Food and Agricultural Organization plans to ask its partners for about $110 million on May 20, according to the agency’s Nairobi-based Resilience Team Leader Cyril Ferrand. Funding needs may increase to $450 million as the FAO prepares to fight swarms seen moving to the Sahel region and Pakistan, according to Ferrand. The agency has so far received an estimated $130 million in payments and pledges.