Food shortages feed instability

Rising food prices may not be the primary driver but will add to the underlying volatility in parts of North Africa and the Middle East.

The level of civil unrest during the Arab Spring has not abated.

In recent days more than 200,000 people marched in protests in Yemen calling for the prosecution of former long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh.

In an unrelated incident the Yemeni Defence Minister narrowly avoided assassination when a car bomb was detonated near his convoy killing at least 12 people.

Violent protests also broke out in the Palestinian West Bank, with thousands of people calling for the resignation of senior officials, citing their frustration at high prices and unpaid wages.

The ruling Jordanian Royal family is also struggling to respond to a wave of protests in several major cities with rising prices for fuel and food and the detention of activists as the major cause.

USA embassies have been attacked in recent days in Egypt and Libya with mobs angry at what they claimed was a USA film that insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Tragically the US Ambassador to Libya and three others were killed yesterday during a riot in Benghazi.

Recent analysis by the US Center for Strategic and International Studies identified the key drivers of instability in North Africa and the Middle East, finding that while there is no single cause, poverty and food prices are serious issues because “…the region has an exceptionally high spending on food as a percent of total income.”

Other key drivers are ethnic, religious and tribal divisionsmany within national borders, corruption, repressive regimes, wealth disparity and a failure in some countries to more equitably share the wealth of oil revenues.

While there is understandably a focus on the civil war under way in Syria and the increasing savagery of both sides, the world cannot take its focus away from other nations that, for a range of reasons including food security, could also slide into chaos and armed conflict.