2003–2005 African locust outbreak

Shortly thereafter, unusually heavy rain fell for two days over a large area that extended from Dakar, Senegal to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

By early 2004, the threat materialized as swarms of locusts started to form and move north into important agricultural areas in Morocco and Algeria, inflicting damage to crops.

The collective fear, expressed by the FAO and news organizations covering the situation, was the potential destruction of a sizable portion of Africa's food supply if control operations could not be mounted quickly and successfully.

One swarm in Morocco between Tarfaya and Tan-Tan was 230 km long, at least 150 m wide, and contained an estimated 69 billion locusts, which were being used as a food resource by 33 species of birds (Ullman 2006).

The costs of fighting this upsurge have been estimated by the FAO to have exceeded US$400 million and harvest losses were valued at up to US$2.5 billion which had disastrous effects on the food security situation in West Africa.