Grasshopper plague threatens Sudanese crops, causes asthma epidemic

KHARTOUM, Oct 27 (AFP) — Swarms of grasshoppers are attacking farm-rich central Sudan, with the worst plague there in three decades also triggering an asthma epidemic that has killed five people, a newspaper said.

The Al-Rai Al-Aam daily said authorities in Gezira State have declared a state of emergency in the hospitals of Wad Medani city to contain the epidemic that broke out when the swarms arrived last Wednesday.

Five people have died among 600 reported cases of asthma in Wad Medani, about 180 kilometers (108 miles) southeast of Khartoum, the independent newspaper said. Presumably, the grasshoppers produced huge clouds of dust.

While aerial spraying has begun, a team from the capital is expected in Wad Medani later Monday to assess the situation and take measures to cope with it, Gezira Health Minister Sadek al-Wakeel was quoted as saying.

He told the daily that it would “take at least two weeks to contain the situation in spite of the ongoing aerial and manual spraying operations.”

Grasshoppers were threatening crops of peanuts, sorghum, wheat and cotton throughout Gezira which has the richest farmland in Sudan.