Hunger…Afghanistan's New Plight

Being noticed by the bakery's owner, he was tossed a piece of bread he no longer affords buying.

"I used to be able to buy a sack of flour, and my wife could bake for us, but now it is far too expensive," Abdul Karim, a handcart hauler, told the Washington Post on Sunday, May 25.

"I have to rely on this baker's kindness so my children can eat. I do my best for them and work hard all day, but it is not enough anymore."

For generations, Afghans have depended on cheap, plentiful bread as their main staple.

But a combination of local drought and regional shortages sent the price of flour skyrocketing, leaving many Afghans unable to buy bread.

"In my whole life, even in the civil war, we did not see prices this high," said Zabiullah, the window man at Kabul Sang Tarashi bakery and the owner's son.

"Now the fighting is long over, but flour is three times higher.

"Some of our old customers come and ask, 'In the name of God, please give me some bread," he said, surveying a long queue of bread beggars.

"How can I refuse them?"

Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years, sparking violent protests in several countries.

Based on UN records, global food prices rose 35 percent this year and 65 percent since 2002.

In 2007 alone, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

In February, the UN World Food Program (WFP) appealed to the international community to help feed 2.5 million Afghans most severely affected by food shortages.

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