Oct 11 2012
"African countries are most at risk of social unrest and famine stemming from food shortages and rising prices, according to risk advisory firm Maplecroft," Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The news service writes, "Africa accounts for 39 of the 59 most at-risk countries in Maplecroft's Food Security Risk Index and has nine of the 11 nations in the 'extreme risk' category, the Bath, England-based company said in a statement today" (Almeida, 10/9). "Despite strong economic growth, food security remains an issue of primary importance for Africa, according to a new study by [the] risk analysis company ..., which classifies 75 percent of the continent's countries at 'high' or 'extreme risk,'" according to the statement (10/1). "African countries at 'extreme risk' include Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Comoros, and Sierra Leone, according to Maplecroft," Bloomberg notes (10/9).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |