Rising food prices cause deaths in Haiti
The World Food Programme has called for more aid for Haiti, the western hemisphere's poorest country, after four people died in rioting.
Rising food prices across the globe are starting to cause unrest. Affected countries, apart from Haiti, are Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania and Senegal. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)last week called on donors to raise an additional US$500 million to respond to dramatic increases in global food and fuel prices - which have risen around 55% since last June.
Haiti is one of three countries in the world with the highest daily deficit of calories per person - the average being 460 calories below the baseline daily requirement of 2100 kcals/day. So far the WFP has only received 13% of the US19 million required to feed 1.7 million people in Haiti. The situation is similar elsewhere.
WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran says, 'A new face of hunger is emerging. Even where there is food on the shelves, there are now more and more people who simply cannot afford it.'
See the WFP site here http://www.wfp.org
