High food prices: Africa shows first signs of trouble

Recent violent unrest over soaring food prices in several West African nations points to new signs of trouble on a continent where nearly half the people live on a dollar a day, experts warn.

After Mauritania and Morocco, Senegal this week was the latest country hit by violent protests.


The UN Food and Agriculture Organization chief Jacques Diouf last month warned of a “risk of social and political troubles in Third World nations in the months or years to come,” due to the global rise in cereal prices.

“Soaring international prices have obviously had much more impact in the countries that depend a lot on imports for their (food) needs,” the UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokeswoman for West Africa Stephanie Savariaud told AFP.

The mounting demand for bio-fuels and escalating prices of fossil fuels mean farmers cultivate less food in preference of fast cash-spinning biofuel crops.

AFP