At least seven people have been killed and 280 injured in the food riots that struck Mozambique yesterday, said the country’s government in a statement earlier today. The riots, apparently organized by a cell phone messaging campaign, were sparked by rising food prices and further hikes slated to come into effect on Monday.
Among the dead is one six year old girl who was killed on her way home from school. According to eyewitnesses, another boy died from a severe head wound. The US embassy in Maputo, the country’s capital city, has further reported that two high school students are also among the injured.
Five cars, three buses and more than thirty shops have been burned or otherwise destroyed, while police are reported to have fired on stone-throwing crowds. At least 142 people have been arrested, and the marches have been declared illegal.
Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza appealed for calm on national television and radio broadcasts, reminding the populace that food and gas prices are already subsidized by the government. While gunfire can be heard in certain quarters of the city, the rioting has subsided for the most part. However, the events did cause the government to reconsider a scheduled increase in bus fare.
The prices of energy and water rose markedly over the past year on account of dry weather, poor harvests, and the costs of food handling and distribution systems that require substantial amounts of vehicles and fuel. Recently, the price of bread rose 25% to about 13 cents from 11 cents – a substantial increase if your family earns only a dollar a day.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and has the fifth-poorest human development indicators. Children make up half of the country’s population and 58% of them live below the poverty line. On the bright side, infant mortality has improved, dropping to 124 deaths per 1,000 live births.
While diarrhoea caused by inadequate sanitation is a major killer, malnutrition remains the fundamental cause of child mortality. UNICEF estimates that 41% of Mozambican children are undernourished. Micronutrient deficiencies, stunting and wasting are much too prevalent and can have a devastating effect on a child’s physical, cognitive and immune system development.
According the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization, the news on global food prices is mixed. While prices are down nearly 38% from peak levels in 2008, food price indices rose 5% in the last two months – making prices the highest they’ve been since the 2007-2008 food crisis.
Between early 2007 and 2008, global food prices rose more than 40%. Among those commodities hit were soybeans, wheat, corn and rice – staple foods in many countries. Inflation had a huge effect on poor and rural households, which typically spend 50-60% of their incomes on food. When food expenditure is increased, families are able to allocate fewer funds to health and education for their children.
Today, the roots of the crisis haven’t entirely disappeared. Poor weather that reduces yields, competition for food crops used as feedstock in the biofuels sector, as well as higher food and fuel demand in emerging economies like China and India all impact access to and availability of food.
The effects of the food crisis were compounded by the global economic recession, which tipped about 100 million people into dire poverty. According to the 2010 UN report on meeting the Millennium Development Goals, “Progress against hunger has been impacted more severely (than other goals) by economic troubles.”
The United Nations expects that the recession (and the US$700 billion development financing gap that came out of it) will lead to 2.8 million infant deaths by 2015, as a consequence of malnutrition and health problems.