In Senegal especially, the capital Dakar, life is becoming a boredom due to the acute shortage of rice, the Francophone West African country’s stable food. Most families now have resorted to the traditional foods, Chereh (Coos coos) and Njeleng (grains from cereals).
 
By ALPHA JALLOW, Dakar, Senegal, West Africa.
 

The first thing that a visitor coming to Dakar does after arriving is to go down town Dakar and have a taste of the country’s most popular food "Cheep bou Ginn", rice and fish, with a melanche of vegetables marinated and cooked in oil.
However, this spicy food that leaves the average eater salivating is hard to come by nowadays due to the rising cost in the price of rice and other consumable goods such as oil, milk and sugar.
In the past couple of days many Dakaroise (inhabitants of Dakar) are seen in long queues around rice depots or rice retail shops battling to get few kilograms of rice to take home.
Sometimes fighting breaks among the hungry consumers as each person struggles to get rice. This scenario has increased the confusion and frustration among the once peaceful Senegalese community.
Three days ago, it took the security force a whole day to quell a big demonstration in Parcelles Assainies, one of Dakar's most populous suburbs. The local population was protesting against the sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities such as rice, cooking oil and Gas. The demonstration became worst when the capital Dakar ran out of running water for a whole week.
Senegalese newspapers ran out glaring headlines entitled "Wooy fou nou Jemm" (Wolof for where are we heading?) The current situation looks quite dismal and many people put the blame on the government of Octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade for not carryout its obligations.
"This is one of the worst governments this country ever had. The entire nation voted for President Wade in 2000 hoping that he will effect changes in the living conditions of Senegalese but to no avail. His eight years in power is worst than forty years of PS, the Socialist Party that led Senegal to independence and continued to rule until Wade’s victory eight years ago,” an angry protester told The Gambia Echo.
Many Senegalese blame President Wade describing him as “totally inefficient and out of steam.”
One old man in Grand Yoff accused the Minister of Commerce, Mamadou Diop de Crois, as one of the worst commerce Ministers Senegal ever had. He called on the Commerce Minister to immediately resign his post because he has been found telling lies to Senegalese regarding the availability of rice and cooking gas.
Now as rice is becoming harder to find each day, many Senegalese even those in the capital Dakar, have return to traditional diets. Most families now cook "Njeleng" for lunch and "Chereh" for dinner.

Meanwhile, the government unsure how soon rice will reach the eleven million Senegalese, continues to advise its citizens to go back to the land. This new agricultural drive called GOANA, meaning the great Agricultural Offensive for Food and Abundance, is expected to solve the country's food crisis.
About 500,000 tones of rice, two million tones of beans, two million tones of grains and three million tonne of cassava is envisaged in this agricultural project.