African central bank governors and finance ministers warned against the combined effect of natural disasters and soaring food prices on the continent's economies.

"The drought currently affecting the Horn of Africa should be a stark reminder of the threat looming over African agriculture," DR Congo Finance Minister Matata Ponyo said at the opening of the session.

The annual meeting of the African Caucus, which includes the continent's central bank governors and finance ministers as well as World Bank and International Monetary Fund representatives, is due to end Thursday.

"Macro-economic stability is still very precarious due to the rise in food and energy products," Ponyo said.

While the food riots that turned into fully-fledged uprisings and unhinged well-entrenched regimes in the Arab world have not caught on in sub-Saharan Africa, discontent has grown in countries such as Uganda, Senegal and Malawi.

The IMF had said in April that growing food and oil prices were likely to exert increasing pressure on African economies and agreed that additional support would be considered to help them weather a fresh crisis.