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Police raid opposition offices in Zimbabwe

Global food riots turn deadly

By David R. Sands
April 10, 2008

DESPERATE TIMES: Men accused of looting near the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince are put in a police vehicle in Haiti yesterday. The rise in global food prices has caused thievery and riots, as well as fatalities.

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Anger over spiraling world food prices is becoming increasingly violent.

Deadly clashes over higher costs for staple foods have broken out in Egypt, Haiti and several African states, and an international food expert yesterday warned of more clashes with no short-term relief in sight.

"World food prices have risen 45 percent in the last nine months and there are serious shortages of rice, wheat and [corn]," Jacques Diouf, head of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said at a major conference in New Delhi yesterday.

"There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60 percent of income goes to food," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a personal appeal for calm in Haiti yesterday. U.N. peacekeepers were called to protect the residence of President Rene Preval from rioters protesting sharp increases in the prices of food and fuel. At least five people have been reported killed in disturbances since last week after the cost of rice doubled and gas prices rose a third time since February.

A supermarket, several gas station marts and a government rice warehouse were looted, the Associated Press reported.

Video: Haitian leader's pleas fail to stop riots

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif this week promised concessions to workers in the industrial city of Mahalla al-Kobra after two days of rioting over rising food prices left one protester dead.

The clashes were described as the most serious anti-government demonstrations since 1977 riots erupted over soaring bread prices.

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