Immature adults and a small swarm coming from Northwest Africa reached the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in the past few days. In adjacent areas on the mainland, intensive aerial and ground control operations are underway against immature swarms in Morocco and Algeria that continue to arrive from West Africa. The swarms are present in the valleys and plateaux of the Atlas Mountains including the Souss Valley, an important agricultural area. The majority of the swarms will remain immature there until spring, providing a good opportunity to reduce locust numbers significantly in the next four months. More swarms have arrived in western Libya from the Sahel, and a few swarms have matured and laid eggs that hatched and hopper bands are forming. Control operations continue against swarms in southwest Mauritania and several immature swarms have reinvaded the south and southeast as well as neighboring areas in northeast Senegal. These swarms are coming from the east in the Sahel. Locusts and a few swarms continue to be reported from southern Israel and adjacent areas in Jordan, probably from nearby locusts that have dispersed over a large area of the northern Red Sea. These are expected to move further south along the Red Sea. An immature swarm was treated on the northern coast of Saudi Arabia near Duba and scattered adults were present further south near Al Wahj yesterday.
Additional international assistance is required to supplement major efforts already under way and to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.