One of our ancient family mottos is “it could always be worse.” For some, it is hard to imagine things being any worse.  Being in Somalia sure would be a whole lot worse for most. Theft is one of the many rampant problems in that war-torn country.

The Somali government fired one official and suspended another in recent weeks over missing food aid meant for families fleeing the country's worst famine in a generation..

The arrests are the first sign that government officials are trying to tackle the theft of food aid, which is rife among aid agency staff, government officials and private individuals. I blogged back in August that around half of food aid delivered to Mogadishu that month had been stolen.

In recent weeks, the district commissioner of Mogadishu's Hamar Jajab neighborhood, Bashir Abdi Nur, was fired following investigations into an incident where a warehouse was broken into and looted.

The district commissioner in Karan, Abdullahi Mohamed Robleh, was suspended following looting incidents in September and assaults on women collecting food.

Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali said more officials are under investigation and the government takes the problem seriously.

"We will not allow anyone to steal food aid," Ali said Monday. "We will have zero tolerance for corruption."

Do you really believe an African government will have zero corruption. Heck, there are many in the USA who believe our politicians are corrupt!

But many factors complicate the government's ability to carry out a crackdown.

District commissioners are very powerful in the capital of Mogadishu, and many maintain their own militias, who often clash with poorly paid government troops. Police officers do not receive regular salaries, hampering their ability to carry out investigations. Donors have allocated salary money but not released it.

Nearly half a million children in Somalia are acutely malnourished and the U.N. says tens of thousands of Somalis have already died in southern Somalia.

The region was hit by a devastating drought, and Islamist militias banned many aid agencies from operating in their areas. Around 4 million people — more than half the population — need food aid, according to the U.N.

Thieves stealing food from starving people deserve the harshest punishment possible.