I remember getting it out of my local library around ten years ago. It had a yellow cover.

It took place in an African country, and I would have sworn it was Sierra Leone, except that I've just read the Literature of Sierra Leone wikipedia page and didn't find it.

The story focuses on one family, the father of which works for the local government, so he is aware of the fact that things will be going downhill before other people are. I think one of their kids goes missing or gets abducted to be a child soldier and the reader also follows him on a journey into the rural parts of the country before he escapes and tries to find his way back to the city where his family lives. Meanwhile, his dad and his youngest sister have found a place that is safe from the violence, but are slowly starving to death.

The thing that I remember most about the book was actually the forward by the author explaining that linguistically, there are words in English that in his (I think I remember it being written by a man but I could be wrong) native language would be more like a sentence. He found this to be more descriptive and evocative, so for some nouns he would substitute the literal translation of that sentence for the English-language noun. The example I most remember was that instead of talking about a ball, he'd describe it as a "nest of air".

UPDATE: It's Ishmael Beah's second book, Radiance of Tomorrow.