This Is What Famine Looks Like

Scenes from the Dadaab refugee camp.

DADAAB CAMP, Kenya—The drought in the Horn and East Africa is the worst in 60 years, with more than 12 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya in urgent need of food and assistance. The United Nations has declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia, and the rest of southern Somalia is at growing risk.

In response, aid groups such as the International Rescue Committee are stepping up their efforts across the region. The IRC is also aiding tens of thousands of Somali refugees who are pouring into camps in Kenya and Ethiopia—many barely clinging to life. In a hospital in Dadaab, Kenya—the largest refugee camp in the world—the IRC is treating some 500 Somali refugees every day.

Click here to see photographs of some of the refugees receiving treatment at the camp.

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