Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – Africa is the suffering most from the food emergency that is affecting many of the world’s countries, to the point that various experts fear that the African nations implied in the rise of prices of food merchandise will not be able to meet the millenium objective to reduce the number of poor persons by 50% by the year 2015. This objective seems a long-way’s away. An estimated 210 million people in Africa live on less than 1 dollar per day, and over 400 million live on 2 dollars per day, a number that is destined to become 600 million in 2015.
The world food crisis will be the focus for the FAO Summit Meeting that will begin next week in Rome. The crisis is being caused by the drastic increase in food prices, placing the lives of 100 million people in jeopardy.
In Africa, last year, there was a registered 57% increase in the price of food items, which provoked uprisings and chaos in various countries: Somalia, Cameroon, Senegal, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Guinea, and Burkina Faso.
The gravest situations are the following:
Somalia: The United Nations reports that 2.6 million Somalians need food assistance and that this number could rise to 3.5 million. The same conditions that caused the food crisis in the early 1990s have returned (political and military instability, increase in internal refugees, and severe drought).
Sudan: The World Food Program (WFP) assists 3.7 million in Darfur. As the political and military situation does not show signs of improvement, the conditions of these people is bound to worsen.
Ethiopia: According to the WFP, an estimated 147 million dollars are needed to provide for the populations of the vast areas of Ethiopia affected by drought and to assist nearly 3 million people.
Cameroon: In February 2008, 24 people died in protests from the rise of food prices. Another 1,600 people were arrested in relation to the incidents. The government has begun a program for emergency response in order to double agricultural production and reach auto-sufficiency. The WFP assists 189, 000 refugees from the Central African Republic.
Ivory Coast: On March 31, the streets of the industrial capital, Abidjan, filled with fighting that broke out between the military and protesters against the rise of food and fuel prices. In the Ivory Coast, WFP is assisting 17, 000 internal refugees from the civil war.
Senegal: The country imports 80% of its rice, whose price has risen 25% in comparison to late 2007. Senegal has reached an agreement with India saying that the Asian country will produce 600,000 tons of rice over the next 6 years (see Fides 7/5/2008).
Mauritania: 760,000 people depend on the WFP in order to survive. (LM) (Agencia Fides 30/5/2008)
