General Situation during January 2015 Forecast until mid-March 2015
Desert Locust infestations increased during January along both sides of the Red Sea as a result of a second generation of winter breeding. Control operations intensified against numerous small hopper bands that formed in Sudan, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. Although there were signs the situation was improving, there remains a moderate risk that any locusts that escape detection or control could form adult groups and a few small swarms that may eventually move to the Eritrean Highlands and the interior of northern Sudan and Saudi Arabia. If locusts reach the interior of Saudi Arabia and the Nile Valley in northern Sudan, breeding could commence by the end of the forecast period. Elsewhere, the situation remained calm and no significant developments are expected.