With East Africa facing its worst drought
in 60 years, affecting more than 11 million people, the United Nations
has declared a famine in the region for the first time in a generation.
Overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia are receiving some 3,000
new refugees every day, as families flee from famine-stricken and
war-torn areas. The meager food and water that used to support millions
in the Horn of Africa is disappearing rapidly, and families strong
enough to flee for survival must travel up to a hundred miles, often on
foot, hoping to make it to a refugee center, seeking food and aid. Many
do not survive the trip. Officials warn that 800,000 children could die
of malnutrition across the East African nations of Somalia, Ethiopia,
Eritrea, and Kenya. Aid agencies are frustrated by many crippling
situations: the slow response of Western governments, local governments
and terrorist groups blocking access, terrorist and bandit attacks, and
anti-terrorism laws that restrict who the aid groups can deal with --
not to mention the massive scale of the current crisis. Below are a few
images from the past several weeks in East Africa. One immediate way to
help is to text "FOOD" to UNICEF (864233) to donate $10, enough to feed a child for 10 days, more ways to help listed here. [38 photos]
Mihag Gedi Farah, a malnourished seven-month-old child weighing only
7.5 pound (3.4kg), is held by his mother in a field hospital of the
International Rescue Committee, IRC, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, on
July 26, 2011. The U.N. will airlift emergency rations this week to
parts of drought-ravaged Somalia that militants banned it from more than
two years ago, in a crisis intervention to keep hungry refugees from
dying along what an official calls the "roads of death." Tens of
thousands already have trekked to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, hoping
to get aid in refugee camps. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
