Because of shortages due to lack of donor pledges to the World Food Program's food pipeline for refugees in Ethiopia, individual cereal rations were being reduced from 500 grams to 375 grams per day. And, for the first time since their arrival eight years ago, the refugees also were told they were going to receive sorghum instead of the usual wheat grain from WFP, the United Nations' food arm. With wheat grain, the refugees say they are able to prepare several types of meals, but with sorghum only one kind.
Sorghum is a staple meal in southern Somalia and has the same nutritive value as wheat.
But these refugees have been receiving wheat grain or wheat flour for years and say it would take time for them to get used to sorghum. What was left unsaid by the refugees was that wheat grain sells for more in the market than sorghum. Refugees are known to sell part of their ration to vary their diet a practice that is looked upon with an understandable degree of tolerance by some aid providers, but with dismay by food donors. In a place where there is nothing, food is everything. The refugees sell part of the ration to buy other needs.