{"id":13881,"date":"2021-10-05T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/?p=13881"},"modified":"2021-10-06T09:40:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T08:40:18","slug":"hunger-and-food-insecurity-could-lead-to-social-unrest-and-violence-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/2021\/10\/hunger-and-food-insecurity-could-lead-to-social-unrest-and-violence-across-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunger and food insecurity could lead to social unrest and violence across Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hunger and food insecurity could lead to increased social unrest, instability and violence in Africa, according to a report by the South African-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISS argues that food shortages caused by \u201csupply chain disruptions, climatic shocks, rapid spikes in commodity prices and lockdowns\u201d have \u201ccreated fertile ground for unrest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report demonstrates that food insecurity leads not only to hunger and starvation but also to the increased likelihood of violence. This would include Islamist terrorism and persecution of Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hunger and food insecurity place Africans, such as this young woman in Mozambique, in danger of not only starvation but increased social unrest, violence and instability <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

ISS cites the findings of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that global food prices are increasing at their fastest rate in more than ten years, a situation which will disproportionately affect the world\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is estimated by the World Bank, for example, that seven million Nigerians have been pushed into poverty due to inflation caused by rising food prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This in turn increases the risk of violence across Nigeria, including what the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has referred to as a \u201cChristian genocide\u201d. For social unrest and violence to emerge, argues FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian, \u201call you need is a little spark. It can be food prices, or energy prices, or simply bad rain.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These findings come at a time when Islamist violence is already increasing in many parts of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report published in November 2020, the \u201ccentre of gravity\u201d for Islamic State (also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) activity has moved from the Middle East to Africa. GTI explains that an \u201cexpansion of ISIS affiliates into sub-Saharan Africa\u201d has led to a \u201csurge in terrorism in many countries in the region\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By signing up to food.gives and sending food to your hungry brothers and sisters, you can help extinguish the spark which leads to persecution and violence<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ISS report also follows a July 2021 Oxfam report which reported that a total of 155 million people across 55 countries are experiencing \u201cextreme levels of food insecurity\u201d, while more than 520,000 are living in \u201cfamine-like conditions\u201d \u2013 more than six times the number experiencing such conditions at the beginning of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfrica\u2019s harsh set of social, environmental, economic and political challenges make it ripe for unrest,\u201d argues the ISS report. \u201cGiven the tenuous position facing African countries, food insecurity could be the spark that lights the tinderbox.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help is possible. Through our new initiative food.gives<\/strong> Barnabas Fund is joining the fight against food insecurity, hunger and starvation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of food.gives is growing and gathering momentum \u2013 we have already delivered vital food supplies from South Africa to believers in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and \u2013 God willing \u2013 by the end of the year the first shipping containers will have left the UK and Australia laden with dry food for our needy brothers and sisters in South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related Countries<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article originally appeared on Barnabas Fund\/News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hunger and food insecurity could lead to increased social unrest, instability and violence in Africa, according to a report by the South African-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS). ISS argues that food shortages caused by \u201csupply chain disruptions, climatic shocks, rapid spikes in commodity prices and lockdowns\u201d have \u201ccreated fertile ground for unrest\u201d. The report demonstrates that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":13882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13881"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13881"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13895,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13881\/revisions\/13895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnabastoday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}