Escalating prices of rice, flour and sugar and other basic food items are causing hardship to local people, as the effects of an ongoing blockade on the town continue to bite.
Mohamed Hussein, a resident, told Radio Ergo’s local reporter that a sack of rice had risen from 900,000 shillings three months ago to 1,300,000 shillings.
Sainab Ahmed, a mother of five, said poor people could not afford the current prices. “The limited food supplies coming in to the remaining people in the town are smuggled on donkeys from Luq, 120 km away,” she said.
Surrounding roads have been cut off for some time by Al-Shabab forces. Most livestock herders moved to other places in search of water and food during the dry season. Those remaining are mainly farmers. One of them, Ahmed Musse, told Radio Ergo he and many others had been forced to stop planting as they had no diesel to power their generators.
A barrel of fuel, when available, is selling at $300.
Locals report that 1 kg of flour has risen from 25,000 from 16,000 shillings; sugar from 20,000 to 30,000 shillings and a three litre can of cooking oil costs 130,000 shillings.
