Grasshoppers Peril African Food Supply

ROME — Grasshoppers threaten Africa with a new famine, even though normal rains have ended the continent’s devastating drought, the director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said here Wednesday.

Edouard Saouma told a meeting of donor countries that the rain itself created conditions for propogation of the crop-eating insects.

“Without massive and rapid action, these insects multiply like lightning, and the damage to come would mark the end of the drought as a bitter victory,” Saouma said. He said $3.5 million in relief funds will be required.