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Can bread subsidies continue in their present form?

Some 500 political activists and textile workers were arrested and dozens of others injured during clashes with police in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla Al-Kobra on 6 April in protests over high bread prices, said eyewitnesses.

10 Apr 2008

According to the 8 April edition of Masri Al-Yom newspaper, a 15-year-old boy was killed in the riots, in the area around the Ghazl El-Mahalla factory.

The Egyptian government is struggling to tackle acute shortages of subsidised bread amid rising world food prices.

Bread is central to Egyptian life and the Egyptian diet - reflected in the fact that colloquial Arabic uses the word `aish' (life) rather than the standard Arabic `khobz'.

In recent weeks, long queues in front of bakeries have led to violence mainly in Cairo's impoverished neighbourhoods. Schoolchildren have been sent by their parents to queue for hours to buy the staple - and missed school as a result.

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