DAKAR, April 6: African governments are nervously confronting a mounting wave of often deadly social unrest caused by the soaring cost of food and fuel.

Forty people died during price riots in Cameroon in February. There also have been deadly troubles in Ivory Coast and Mauritania and other violent demonstrations in Senegal and Burkina Faso — where a nationwide strike against price rises is to start on Tuesday.

Egyptian authorities headed off a threatened strike on Sunday by warning of tough measures against anyone taking part in the protest action against soaring inflation and low pay.

Governments across the continent — where the crisis ranges from 100,000 per cent inflation in Zimbabwe to Morocco, where subsidies for key commodities have grown fivefold over six years — are becoming anxious about public anger.

The rise in international food prices “poses significant threats to Africa’s growth, peace and security,” African finance ministers warned in a statement at the end of a meeting in Addis Ababa last week to discuss the crisis.

There have already been demonstrations in Burkina Faso where a nationwide strike against the price of food is due to start on Tuesday, despite a government promise of action to help the worst off.

“Escalating social unrest as we have seen in Cameroon, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and in Senegal could spread to other countries” warned Kanayo Nwanza, vice president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations agency.

The cost of rice has risen by 300 per cent in Sierra Leone, already one of the world’s poorest countries, and by about 50 per cent in Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon. The cost of palm oil, sugar and flour, nearly all of which have to be imported, has also surged.

Africa is now a major oil producer but the explosion in the cost of crude to over $100 a barrel has backfired on poor populations who depend on public transport to get around congested African capitals.—AFP