Desert Locust situation improving along Red Sea coasts
The Desert Locust situation improved during March in the winter breeding areas along both sides of the Red Sea due to ongoing control operations and drying ecological conditions. Nevertheless, a few adult groups and swarms formed in Sudan and Eritrea, and there remains a risk that some of these may move into the Nile Valley in northern Sudan and breed near irrigated cropping areas. Very few locusts were reported in other regions.
During the forecast period, small-scale breeding is likely to cause locust numbers to increase slightly in the spring breeding areas of Northwest Africa, the interior of the Arabian Peninsula, and in southeast Iran and southwest Pakistan as a result of good rains that fell in March.