Hungry crowds spell trouble for world leaders

"Is it not said 'A hungry man is an angry man'?" commented Simon Nkwenti, head of a teachers' union in Cameroon, after riots that killed dozens of people in the central African country.

It is a proverb world leaders might do well to bear in mind as their impoverished populations struggle with food costs driven ever higher by record oil prices, weather and speculators trading in local market places and on global futures exchanges.

Anger over high food and fuel costs has spawned a rash of violent unrest across the globe in the past six months.

From the deserts of Mauritania to steamy Mozambique on Africa's Indian Ocean coast, people have taken to the streets. There have been "tortilla riots" in Mexico, villagers have clashed with police in eastern India and hundreds of Muslims have marched for lower food prices in Indonesia.

Governments have introduced price controls and export caps or cut custom duties to appease the people who vote for them, but on streets across Africa, those voters want them to do more.

Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly vulnerable: Most people survive on less than $2 a day in countries prone to droughts and floods where agricultural processes are still often rudimentary.

For African households, even a small rise in the price of food can be devastating when meals are a family's main expense.

"People have been driven to destruction because they no longer know what to do or who to talk to," said Ousmane Sanou, a trader in Patte d'Oie, one of the areas worst hit by February riots in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou.

"They understand it's the only way to get the government to change things. Prices must come down - otherwise we're heading for a catastrophe."

Over 300 people were arrested in some of the worst violence for years in normally calm, landlocked Burkina, prompting the government to suspend custom duties on staple food imports for three months - measures some other countries have also taken.

But unions have threatened to call a general strike this month unless prices fall further.

Anger over rising prices also fuelled violence in Mauritania late last year. And at least six people were killed when taxi drivers in Mozambique rioted over fuel prices in February.

In Senegal, police raided a private television station last Sunday after it repeatedly transmitted images of police beating demonstrators with electrified batons and firing tear gas during an illegal protest over high food prices in the capital Dakar.

The poor country on Africa's west coast witnessed the worst rioting in more than a decade last year, as hundreds of youths smashed windows and burned tyres in anger at high prices and government efforts to clear away street traders.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) says staple food prices in some parts of Africa have risen by 40 per cent or more in six months. And this on a continent where malnutrition rates in some areas regularly top emergency levels even in an average year.

Food inflation in Africa is 2.8 percentage points higher than headline inflation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said this month.

In South Africa last week, central bank Governor Tito Mboweni warned consumers to "tighten their belts" as the targeted inflation measure reached a five-year high at 9.4 per cent year-on-year in February, from 8.8 per cent in January.

Some details of recent price rise unrest

Burkina Faso:

• It announced a reduction in customs duties on basic foodstuffs in February after several towns were hit by protests in which over 300 were arrested although most were discharged by the courts.

• Unions marched earlier this month demanding further cuts in taxes and prices, as well as public sector wage increases, and also threatened a general strike next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cameroon:

• President Paul Biya raised state salaries by 15 per cent and suspended custom duties on basic foodstuffs like fish, rice and cooking oil to ease discontent over high prices after days of rioting.

• In late February, taxi drivers went on strike to protest at fuel price hikes; the stoppage degenerated into rioting in several towns against the high cost of living and Biya's intention to extend his 25 years in power.

• The government put the death toll from the clashes at 24, although human rights activists put it at over 100 and said most of the victims were shot dead by police in the commercial capital Douala. The government said 1,671 people were also arrested.

Mauritania:

• Violent protests against food price increases in Mauritania spread last November to the capital Nouakchott, where police tried to disperse about 1,000 demonstrators. The unrest was triggered by sharp rises in the prices of grains and other basic foodstuffs.

Mozambique:

• It agreed to cut the price of diesel fuel for private minibus taxis in February to end a wave of protests over high fuel prices and the rising cost of living.

• The protests killed six people and injured more than 100 after police clashed with crowds of demonstrators who looted shops, destroyed vehicles and burned electricity poles.

• Commuters were angered by high fuel costs and a decision, later scrapped, to raise transport fares by 50 pe rcent. The price of petrol has climbed 46 per cent and diesel by nearly 90 per cent.

Senegal:

• In late March, Senegalese police raided a private television station after it repeatedly transmitted images of police beating demonstrators during an illegal protest over high food prices.

• President Abdoulaye Wade cut the number of ministers in his government by more than a quarter last December in a belt-tightening show of solidarity with citizens hit by rising fuel and food prices.

• Mr Wade had previously pledged to trim his cabinet to "lessen the suffering" of the country's poor, who have seen the price of basic foods like rice and bread rise sharply.

• Riots swept the normally tranquil capital Dakar last November, with stone-throwing protesters complaining about widespread unemployment and rising prices at a time when the government is building luxury hotels and four-lane highways.

Argentina:

• Earlier this month Argentine farmers blocked highways with tractors in an anti-government protest that paralyzed the country's main grain market.

• The country's four leading farming associations called the strike after the government introduced a new system of sliding-scale export taxes on grains and oilseeds, which significantly raised levies on soy and sun-seed products.

Peru:

• Peruvian farmers upset over a free trade deal with the US blocked rail services to the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu and closed key highways in February.

• Frustrated by rising fertiliser costs, farmers wanted debt relief and said the free trade deal would flood local markets with imports of subsidized US agricultural goods.

Indonesia:

• Soaring soybean prices have cut into the earnings of thousands of tempeh makers and vendors in Indonesia. Tempeh is Indonesia's traditional soybean cake and is a source of livelihood for millions. This has sparked protests among producers and consumers already struggling to cope with surging prices for many basic food items such as cooking oil.

• About 500 protesters, from the Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, took to the streets of the capital Jakarta in mid-March to demand the government bring down food prices after media reported of cases of starvation.

(This is the second in a series of stories on rising world food prices and their consequences. The first feature appeared yesterday.)