Forecast until mid-December 2004

The Desert Locust situation remained extremely serious during October. There has been a significant redistribution of populations from West to Northwest Africa. As vegetation dried out, numerous swarms left the summer breeding areas in the Sahel, West Africa and invaded Morocco and Algeria. Some swarms arrived in the Cape Verde Islands. A few swarms also reached the Mediterranean coast near the Libyan and Egyptian border and crossed the sea to Crete, and probably to Cyprus