FAO Director-General and Rwanda’s Agriculture Minister share concern about Desert Locust upsurge in East Africa

11 February 2020, Rome - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has reaffirmed his concern about the Desert Locust outbreak in East Africa and said urgent funding was needed to stop the spread of the world’s most dangerous migratory pest. 

The Director-General underscored the seriousness of the situation and the support FAO is providing when he met Her Excellency Gerardine Mukeshimana, Rwanda’s Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, at FAO headquarters in Rome on Monday.

Breeding is continuing in the Horn of Africa and new swarms will form in March and April, with the potential to provoke an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods in the region. At the weekend there were reports that the Desert Locust had arrived in northeast Uganda and crossed the border into northern Tanzania. 

Qu together with Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, will hold a briefing on the Desert Locust crisis in New York on Wednesday 12 February to appeal for greater International support to help the affected countries scale up control operations and prevent a potential humanitarian crisis.

The Director General highlighted the informal briefing session held in FAO HQ together with Dr Agnes Kalibata, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Food Systems Summit 2021. He noted the need for food transformation systems to address the food security and nutrition which the Minister agreed with. 

He then shared details with Her Excellency about the Hand-in-Hand Initiative. The programme aims to link donors and recipients to support tailor-made assistance for the world’s most vulnerable and Qu indicated that FAO will continue to support Rwanda. The Minister welcomed the Director General’s offer and was very supportive of the initiative.