West Africa: South-south cooperation works fast on locust control

As swarms of locusts began devastating the crops and pasture lands of West Africa during this year's rainy season, the first teams to provide assistance on the ground did not come from the traditional donor countries of Europe and North America. Instead, trucks loaded with spraying equipment and pesticide rolled across the Sahara desert only a few weeks after the first swarms of locusts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya to help the struggling locust control teams of their poorer southern neighbours.