Coronavirus: Warning of global protest ‘surge’ as pandemic threatens mass social unrest in dozens of nations

Africa, Latin America and the Middle East to be hardest hit by wave of political discontent amid looming hunger and unemployment, writes Borzou Daragahi

(AFP)

Millions of jobless and hungry people, enraged by the rising gap between rich and poor and corruption among their political elites, are set to challenge governments as the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, according to development agencies, scholars and risk-management experts.

Dozens of countries around the world could experience calamitous and potentially violent protests in the coming months as a result of Covid-19 shutdowns and a global recession.

“As the economic fallout from Covid-19 mounts, protests in emerging and frontier markets are set to swell with millions of newly unemployed, underpaid and underfed citizens, posing a risk to domestic stability with few parallels in recent decades,” according to Verisk Maplecroft, a London-based risk management firm which issued a report on Friday listing 37 countries at risk of potentially catastrophic civil unrest in the coming months.