How food shortages affect Africa's children
How food shortages affect Africa's children

By The Associated Press

Published: July 23, 2008

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Dahir Abdi Salah used to feed his children three meals a day — pancakes for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch and beans for dinner.

Now, due to a global food crisis hitting this poor country especially hard, the family eats one meal a day. Other times they drink tea or water to ward off the inevitable hunger pangs.

"They eat porridge once a day,” Salah said of his children, ages 2, 5 and 6, who live on the outskirts of Somalia's shattered capital, Mogadishu. "A kilogram (2 pounds) of beans used to cost a few cents — now it's a dollar. You can imagine the difference and how it has affected our lives.”

Mark Bowden, the U.N.'s aid chief for Somalia, estimates that 3.5 million people — half of Somalia's population — will need food assistance by the end of 2008. The U.N. has issued an aid appeal for $637 million for Somalia, but so far has gotten about a third of that.

Your thoughts!