Food-related violence may surge
2008-05-27 19:07
Geneva - The International Red Cross warned on Tuesday of a possible surge in "food-related violence" because of soaring commodity prices that are increasing hunger around the world.
Most of the debate so far on the so-called "food crisis" has focused on boosting aid to poorer countries, said Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. But, he said, "the second dimension is that there is also the potential of food-related violence".
Kellenberger, whose agency serves as the guardian of the Geneva Conventions on the rules of war, said that fallout from price rises already has sparked "situations of food violence", a reference to the riots that have occurred in Haiti, Egypt and Somalia.
But he said the neutral ICRC would have to shoulder a big responsibility "when that violence reaches the level of an armed conflict", noting that the body already was delivering food to isolated or dangerous places where the UN's World Food Programme cannot operate.
"You can imagine when you have countries where you have already an armed conflict, where you have already a high level of violence and you have at the same time a lot of poor and extremely vulnerable people," Kellenberger said.
"The price level for them is not only a question of higher prices," he added in a news conference at the ICRC's Geneva headquarters. "It becomes a question of survival, of just having access to food."
The ICRC already has been forced to add over US$60m worth of food assistance to its planned budget for this year. It has revamped its budget six times this year, three of which were to provide greater food aid: in Somalia, Sudan's Darfur region and Yemen.
In total, the body plans to spend 1.05 billion Swiss francs on its relief operations around the world in 2008, and another 160 million francs on administrative costs.
Kellenberger stressed that his concern about food violence was mainly a "future risk", but declined to say what parts of the world he saw as possible trouble spots.
"If I had them in mind, it would not be extremely intelligent if I were to mention them," he said.
- AP