Bamako Mali’s northern regions face a locust invasion and the government can do little to combat the swarms because equipment used to fight the insects has been destroyed amid a rebellion in the region, an official said.
A colony of locusts has been found in the Kidal region, about 1,200 kilometres north-east of the capital, Bamako, Oumar Traore, director of the National Centre for the Fight Against Locusts, said in an interview broadcast on state radio on Thursday.
“If the locusts advance, the fight will be difficult” because equipment including insecticide sprayers and computers used to monitor the insects were destroyed during a rebel attack, he said. Regions at risk of an invasion by the locusts include Kidal, Timbuktu, Gao and Mopti, he said.
Croplands in Mali, Africa’s biggest cotton producer, and neighbouring Niger are at “imminent” risk from Desert Locust swarms that are moving southward from Algeria and Libya, the Food and Agricultural Organisation warned on June 5. Control efforts in the region are being hindered by insecurity along both sides of the Algerian-Libyan border and conflict in Mali, the Rome-based agency said.
Autonomy demand
Mali’s rebel Azawad National Liberation Movement began an uprising in January to demand autonomous rule for Mali’s northern region. The group declared independence in northern Mali on April 6, taking advantage of political instability sparked by the removal of President Amadou Toumani Touri on March 22 by army officers unhappy with the way the government was handling the ethnic Tawareq rebellion.
Algeria and Libya have been trying to treat infested areas that cover a total of 40,000 hectares in Algeria and 21,000 hectares in Libya at the end of May, the FAO said. Niger last faced Desert Locust swarms during a 2003-05 plague that affected farmers in two dozen countries, it said.
Mali, which grows crops including corn, rice and sorghum, relies on agriculture to generate 41 per cent of its gross domestic product, according to the African Development Bank.
