UN General Assembly
1988

Before these torrential rains and flooding ended, wide areas of the Sudan were invaded by locusts, posing a genuine threat to agriculture and the environment not only in the Sudan but in all the States of the region. We extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to our sister States and Governments and to non-governmental organizations for their help in providing relief for the victims. At the same time, we hope that support will continue beyond the time of emergency to consolidate our efforts to rebuild infrastructure, public facilities and various projects concerned with production. In that connection, we consider it necessary to conduct studies of the increase in natural disasters, to which a number of speakers have referred. Studies have shown that in the 1960s disasters claimed 5 million victims, they claimed 15 million in the 1970s, and that figure has doubled before the end of the 1980s. I hope that phenomenon will prompt the United Nations and the entire international community to study the question seriously, to reconsider the performance of existing machinery, and to devise the best practical means and efficient methods and machinery to handle such disasters.