Corporal Nagya Aminu, 36, from Nigeria, was taking food to his unit when he was pulled from his UN vehicle in a clothing market near the cathedral and shot in the neck. Several market stalls were set alight.

The death came hours after senators voted to dismiss Jacques Edouard Alexis as Prime Minister to try to calm days of riots that have claimed at least five lives. Plans have been announced to cut the price of rice by 15 per cent.

It was the first such killing of a peacekeeper since the UN force was deployed in 2004, following the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Two Haitian men were detained.

Food prices in Haiti are reported to have increased by 50 to 100 per cent in the past year. The population are particularly vulnerable because almost four-fifths live on less than $2 a day.

— The import bill for the world’s poorest countries for wheat, corn and milled rice is forecast to rise by 56 per cent this year, and by 74 per cent for vulnerable African nations, a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts (John Zarocostas writes). Food prices have sparked riots in Egypt, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Madagascar, Haiti and the Philippines. Troops have been deployed in Pakistan and Thailand.

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