International   

Liberia’s pest crisis

MONROVIA: Liberia’s President has declared a state of emergency over an invasion of crop-eating caterpillars that has affected 350,000 people in the West African country.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the pests “have invaded our country with the potential to set back our progress in the production of food and export crops.”

“This is indeed a crisis and I hereby declare a state of national emergency with particular emphasis on the existing and potentially affected counties,” she said.

The 2 to 3 cm-long pests, which have been identified as army worms — the caterpillar stage of a moth — are clogging wells and waterways with excrement and devouring crops.

The outbreak in Liberia, which is still recovering from years of civil war, has been blamed on last year’s unusually long rainy season.

Ms. Sirleaf said the government had set up a task force to deal with the situation and had started spraying in the affected areas. — AP

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Release confidential Iraq papers: tribunal tells British government
Civilians, major concern of Army
Sharif wants Chaudhary back
We made mistakes, Obama tells Muslim world
Palestinian State is possible, says Obama
California woman makes history with octuplets
Curtains undrawn
Liberia’s pest crisis
Hindu prayers at 4 U.S. Houses
Hold elections, Fiji told
R-Day celebration in U.S., U.K.
Don’t listen to India, Pakistan tells U.S.

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu