(Bloomberg.com)
Updated: 2008-04-15 10:14

The World Bank plans to give $10 million in emergency aid to Haiti as riots over surging food prices turned deadly and led to the ouster on Monday of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis, a bank official said.

The Washington-based lender will provide poor households with grants and finance programs to help mitigate a jump in food prices "in the very short run," Rogerio Studart, executive director for the region including Haiti and other Caribbean countries, said in an interview. The bank will soon announce a long-term strategy to help improve harvests at small farms, Studart said.

The bank addressed the Haiti situation last week at a meeting that involved senior officials, Studart said, without elaborating. World Bank President Robert Zoellick has set as "a main priority" disbursing a fast aid package to help the Caribbean island nation, Studart said.

"The sensation is that we are in front of a very serious crisis,"Studart said in a phone interview from Washington.

Governments from Guatemala to the Philippines to Indonesia are seeking to combat food inflation and avoid social unrest by curbing exports or lifting import duties on basic food staples such as rice. Global food prices surged 57 percent last month from a year earlier, according to the United Nations, and the World Bank warns civil disturbances may be triggered in 33 countries.

Lacked 'Leadership'

Alexis was voted out of office by Haiti's senate yesterday after lawmakers said he lacked "leadership" and offered no solutions to stem violent protests over rising food prices, according to reports by newswire Efe of Spain.

Imports have become costlier for citizens in the wake of a 5.2 percent drop in the gourde, Haiti's currency, against the dollar this year, according to Bloomberg data.

Haiti is the latest country to suffer unrest from soaring costs for basic foods, joining a list that includes Egypt, Mexico and Ivory Coast. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said on April 12 that rising prices for wheat, corn and soybeans could wipe out a decade of progress in the developing world.

Groups of stone-throwing Haitians began attacking police forces on April 2 to protest soaring costs of rice, cooking oil and other basic goods. On Monday, a member of the United Nations peacemaking forces stationed in the country was dragged from his car and shot dead, the Associated Press reported.

'Unjust' Vote

President Rene Preval, who called the Senate vote on Alexis "unjust," cut the price of rice by 15 percent, Agence France- Presse reported. Prices for the staple had doubled this week to $70 for a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, who last year warned of global unrest following a decrease in land available for food harvesting, plans to send 364 tons of food aid to Haiti. Chavez, who last year created a $20 million fund to help Haiti cope with fuel and food shortages, said today in Caracas that "the world is entering a food crisis of great proportions."

Chavez said the reduction in arable land stems from a boom in global demand for biofuels obtained from soybeans, palm oil and other foods.