Food prices climb amid unrest

Prices of rice, sugar, oil and other basic foods have risen sharply in the Guinea capital Conakry in the tense weeks following a deadly military crackdown on civilians.



“I nearly cried the other day when I got to the market and saw that I could buy almost nothing with my 20,000 Guinean francs (US$4),” said a woman in the Ratoma neighbourhood of Conakry who wished to remain anonymous. She said in the past that amount could buy ingredients like fish and condiments to prepare the daily rice meal.



In the past three to four weeks the price of a 50-kilogram sack of rice has risen by more than 25 percent, 1 kilogram of sugar about 40 percent and 20L of cooking oil 15 percent, according to a merchant in Conakry, who pointed to a drop in value of the local currency.



Residents of Conakry were already struggling with high food prices that swept the region in 2008.



The value of the Guinean franc has fallen since the 28 September violence, a money-changer in Conakry told IRIN. Before 100 Euros exchanged for about 650,000 Guinean francs; today about 870,000Gf, he said.



In normal times some 6.4 percent of Conakry’s estimated 1.6 million people lack access to adequate food to meet their daily needs, according to a July survey of food security in Conakry by the World Food Programme and Guinea government.



Ratoma – along with Matam and Dixinn – are the hardest-hit areas of the capital, the survey found.



The survey says the three most probable determinants of food insecurity in Conakry are poverty, education level and health status.



“In Conakry the causes are structural, but the political crisis is exacerbating the situation,” said a UN official who requested anonymity.



Merchants told IRIN fear of insecurity since the 28 September crackdown has limited the movements of those who travel to the interior of the country to buy merchandise.



Commerce and other activities have also been interrupted by unrest, national days of mourning and general strikes called by civil society organizations.



Despite vast natural resource wealth in the country, Guineans are among the world’s poorest people and most do not have the means to buy food for more than one day at a time. Guinea ranks 170th of 182 countries in the UN Human Development Index; it is 129th of 135 in the poverty index, which measures the proportion of people able to live a healthy life and access education.



“My husband works but now with these price rises the little that he earns will not in the long run cover our food needs and our [seven-year-old] daughter’s school fees,” the woman in Ratoma said. She said she knows many families who have yet to put their children back in school since the beginning of the academic year on 19 October for lack of means.



She said in better times she is able occasionally to give her daughter fruit juice to take to school. “She keeps asking us for juice, but for now I am able to send her off with just a piece of bread with a little butter.”



np/ic/aj