Mauritania appeals for locust aid

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania, July 19 (UPI) -- Mauritania is asking for $5 million in international aid to combat an infestation of locusts affecting seven regions of the country, the BBC said Monday.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says the swarms are the largest in 15 years, and confirmed its warning in February when unusually high rates of breeding were detected south of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Algeria.

Rural Development Minister Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou submitted a plan to treat some 2,000 square miles but said that was a conservative estimate.

Summer rains have started in the area, which means the insects will lay more eggs as they travel.

Locusts can eat their own weight in food every day, which means a single swarm can consume as much food as several thousand people.