Hungry Haitians eating cookies made from dirt

As Trinidad and Tobago grapples with soaring food prices people in Haiti facing similar problems are taking things in their own hands.

On Tuesday mobs barricaded streets and pelted a marketplace with rocks, and a crowd tried to break down the gates of the presidential palace, demanding President Rene Preval's resignation. "We are hungry!" the crowd shouted. "He must go!"

Overwhelmed guards struggled to hold back the crowd until UN peacekeepers rescued them, firing rubber bullets and tear gas. The food riots broke out in the normally placid southern port of Les Cayes last week, quickly escalating as protesters tried to burn down a UN compound. At least five people have been killed there.

The protests spread to other cities, and on Monday tens of thousands took to the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Haitians are also demanding the departure of the 9,000 UN peacekeepers, whom they blame in part for rising food prices. The peacekeepers came to Haiti in 2004 to quell the chaos that followed the overthrow of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Peval has made no comments since the riots began. But government officials say outside forces are manipulating the people and exploiting their situation. They say drug smugglers are inciting the people so they operate more easily amid chaos.

There is also a clear a political component: many Haitians are demanding the return of the Aristide. But the anger among everyday Haitians over food prices is real. Haitians are not over-reacting.

The most desperate now depend on eating cookies made from dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

Global food prices, which have risen 40 per cent on average since the middle of last year, are causing havoc in countries in the region and around the world. But nowhere do they pose a greater threat to democracy than in Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries where in the best of times most people struggle to fill their bellies.

A top UN humanitarian official said Tuesday food riots present a warning sign that rising food prices could cause unrest and instability across the world, adding that combined with the negative impact of climate change and soaring fuel prices, a "perfect storm" is brewing for much of the world's population.

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