Juvenile desert locust hoppers. Photo: FAO/G.Tortoli

By Kareem Ezzat
CAIRO, Apr 13 2016 (IPS)

Now that Yemenis begin to hope that their year-long armed conflict may come to an end as a result of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the United Nations sponsored round of talks between the parties in dispute, scheduled on 18 April in Kuwait, a new threat to their already desperate humanitarian crisis has just appeared in the form of a much feared massive desert locust invasion.

“The presence of recently discovered Desert Locust infestations in Yemen, where conflict is severely hampering control operations, poses a potential threat to crops in the region,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has warned.

On 12 April the FAO also urged neighbouring countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and Iran, to mobilise survey and control teams and to take all necessary measures to prevent the destructive insects from reaching breeding areas situated in their respective territories.

The desert locust threat poses high risks not only to the Southern region of the Gulf, but also to North of Africa, FAO said and warned that strict vigilance is also required in Morocco and Algeria, especially in areas south of the Atlas Mountains, which could become possible breeding grounds for Desert Locust that have gathered in parts of the Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania.

Climate change appears among the major causes of the destructive plague, as groups of juvenile wingless hoppers and adults as well as hopper bands and at least one swarm formed on the southern coast of Yemen in March where heavy rains associated with tropical cyclones Chapala and Megh fell in November 2015.

“The extent of current Desert Locust breeding in Yemen is not fully known since survey teams are unable to access most areas. However, as vegetation dries out along the coast, more groups, bands and small swarms are likely to form,” said Keith Cressman, FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer.

Cressman noted that a moderate risk exists that Desert Locusts will move into the interior of southern Yemen, perhaps reaching spring breeding areas in the interior of central Saudi Arabia and northern Oman.

There is a possibility that this movement could continue to the United Arab Emirates where a few small swarms may appear and transit through the country before arriving in areas of recent rainfall in southeast Iran.

For its part, the Cairo-based FAO Regional office for the Middle East and North of Africa reported that the organisation is currently assisting technical teams from Yemen’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in conducting field survey and control operations in infested coastal areas.

As for the North of Africa, the UN agency has also warned that in the North Western region, small groups and perhaps a few small swarms could find suitable breeding areas in Morocco, Mauritania, and Algeria. In addition, some small-scale Desert Locust breeding is likely to occur in South Western Libya, but numbers should remain low.

Elsewhere, the situation remains calm with only low numbers of adults present in northern Mali and Niger, South West Libya, southeast Egypt and North East Oman.

A Force of Nature?

Desert Locust hoppers can form vast ground-based bands. These can eventually turn into adult locust swarms, which, numbering in the tens of millions can fly up to 150 km a day with the wind.

Female locusts can lay 300 eggs within their lifetime while an adult insect can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day — about two grams every day.

A very small swarm eats the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people and the devastating impact locusts can have on crops poses a major threat to food security, especially in already vulnerable areas.

Locusts can devastate crops and pastures. Photo: FAO/Giampiero Diana

FAO operates a Desert Locust Information Service that receives data from locust-affected countries. This information is regularly analysed together with weather and habitat data and satellite imagery in order to assess the current locust situation, provide forecasts up to six weeks in advance and if required issue warnings and alerts.

It also undertakes field assessment missions and coordinates survey and control operations as well as assistance during locust emergencies. Its three regional locust commissions provide regular training and strengthen national capacities in survey, control and planning.

A Disastrous Year

2015 was a disastrous year for Yemen, which is home to around 27 million people living over an area of more than 528,000 km2. Already the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country, the rise of the Houthi insurgency and Saudi Arabian-led airstrikes intended to oust them from power led to a full-blown humanitarian disaster. And then in November, coastal regions were hit by the most powerful storm in decades, causing displacement and flooding.

Services are the largest economic sector in Yemen (61.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product-GDP), followed by the industrial sector (30.9 per cent), and agriculture (7.7 per cent). Of these, petroleum production represents around 25 per cent of GDP and 63 per cent of the State revenue.

In recent decade, agriculture represented between 18–27% of the GDP, but this percentage has been shrinking due to emigration of rural labour, among others. Main agricultural commodities produced in Yemen include grain, vegetables, fruits, pulses, gat, coffee, cotton, dairy products, fish, livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, camels), and poultry.

Nevertheless, most Yemenis are employed in agriculture. Sorghum is the most common crop. Cotton and many fruit trees are also grown, with `mangoes being the most valuable.

Regarding the on-going humanitarian crisis, one year on into the conflict in Yemen, tens of thousands of Yemenis have been killed or injured, one in 10 are displaced and nearly the entire population is in urgent need of aid, the top UN humanitarian official in the country stated on 22 March 2016.

Credit: Almigdad Mojalli / IRIN

Shelling of ports and airports, resulting in blockades and congestion, is one of the drivers of the humanitarian crisis, McGoldrick said, noting that health workers cannot reach patients and some 90 per cent of the food has to be imported.

“The country had extremely high levels of poverty before the war, and currently, the war has escalated, in an already fragile environment,” said the aid official.

Some 6,400 people have been killed in the past year, half of them civilians, and more than 30,000 are injured, with 2.5 million people displaced, according to figures from the UN World Health Organization (WHO). And more than 20 million people, or 80 per cent of the population, require some form of aid – about 14 million people in need of food and even more in need of water or sanitation.

The UN has appealed for 1.8 billion dollars for food, water, health care and shelter and protection issues, but only 12 per cent has been funded so far.

Bettina Luescher, senior communications officer for the World Food Programme (WFP) recently said in Geneva that shortages have forced the agency to cut rations to 75 per cent of a full ratio so that enough people could eat. “Yemen should not be forgotten, with all the attention focused on the Syria crisis,” she said.

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Children from the Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced performed in 2015 traditional dances at the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, El Fasher, Sudan. Credit: UN Photo/Albert Gonzalez Farran

By Kareem Ezzat
Cairo, Mar 20 2016 (IPS)

When the United Nations was still getting ready to mark this year’s International Day of Happiness on 20 March, the rulers of an Arab State could have well said: ”but we are ahead and have already created a Ministry for Happiness and appointed a young lady to be in charge of it!”

It is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a federation of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. That beat the UN on happiness, it seems.

Located in the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula, the UAE was established in 1971 as a federation, forming the second richest state in the Gulf, after Saudi Arabia.

Well, the decision to create a Ministry for Happiness was announced at the beginning of February this year as part of the largest-ever government reshuffling that implied the appointment of a cabinet of 30 ministers and secretary of state, including 8 women. The youngest woman minister is only 22-years-old.

The young woman, Ohoud al-Roumi, appointed as minister of state for Happiness, is expected to drive policy “to create social good and satisfaction,” according to the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai.

Map of the United Arab Emirates | Credit: Ksamahi | Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons

Sheikh Mohammed added that several ministries would also be merged. He also unveiled plans to outsource most government services. “Governments must be flexible. We don’t need more ministries, but more ministers capable of dealing with change.”

“We want a young and flexible government that will fulfill our youth’s aspirations and achieve our people’s ambitions,” he said while announcing the creation of UAE Youth National Council.

The “elite group of young men and women” would advise the government on youth issues and be led by a female minister of state for youth no older than 22, he said, adding “The energy of youth will fuel our government in future.”

“It is the beginning of a new journey of achievements for our people.”

The Sheikh went on saying that “the new executive will focus on the future, on young people, but also on development of education and the fight against climate change”.

Credit: UNICEF

Furthermore, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced that the UAE would privatise some governmental services.

With a combined population estimated at around 10 million inhabitants, of which 1,5 million are Emirati and 8,5 are expatriates, the UAE has the second largest economy in the Gulf Cooperation Council (after Saudi Arabia), with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $377 billion in 2012.

Since 1971, UAE’s economy has grown by nearly 230 according to estimates by financial corporations. The non-oil trade has grown by around 28 times from 1981 to 2012.

THE UAE is ranked as the 31st best nation in the world for doing business based on its economy and regulatory environment, ranked by the Doing Business 2016 Report published by the World Bank Group.

Although the UAE has the most diversified economy in the Gulf, its economy remains extremely reliant on oil. With the exception of Dubai, most of the UAE is dependent on oil revenues.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the UAE has reached 339.085 billion dollars in 2015, which amounts to 35,392 dollars if translated into GDP per capita.

Meanwhile, United Nations secretary general Ban ki-moon, marked the International Day of Happiness, with a message saying: “At this time of grave injustices, devastating wars, mass displacement, grinding poverty and other man-made causes of suffering,” the Day is a global chance to assert that “peace, well-being and joy deserve primacy.”

“It is about more than individual contentment; it is an affirmation that we have a collective responsibility to humanity,” he added.

By advancing progress towards the interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the UN General Assembly last September, “we can help spread happiness and secure peace, he stressed. “The best way to celebrate this International Day of Happiness is by taking action to alleviate suffering,” he urged.

“Peace, prosperity, lives of dignity for all – this is what we seek. We want all men, women and children to enjoy all their human rights. We want all countries to know the pleasure of peace,” the Secretary-General said in his message for the Day.

Well, it seems that there is at least one country—the UAE that is taking it seriously.

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