Me and the man with the iPad

By Barry Malone

Jul 29, 2011 14:09 EDT

I never know how to behave when I go to write about hungry people.

I usually bring just a notebook and a pen because it seems somehow more subtle than a recorder. I drain bottled water or hide it before I get out of the car or the plane. In Ethiopia a few years ago I was telling a funny story to some other journalists as our car pulled up near a church where we had been told people were arriving looking for food.

We got out and began walking towards the place, me still telling the tale, shouting my mouth off, struggling to get to the punch line through my laughter and everybody else’s.

Then there was this sound, a low rumbling thing that came to meet us.

I could feel it roll across the ground and up through my boots. I stopped talking, my laughter died, I grabbed the arm of the person beside me: “What is that?” And I realized. It was the sound of children crying. There were enough children crying that — I’ll say it again — I could feel it in my boots. I was shamed by my laughter.

Inside the churchyard there were tents and inside the tents children were dying.

Rows and rows of women sat on the ground cradling delicate babies. An aid worker told us we had ten minutes and so we went to work. Camera shutters clicking, pens scratching: “What’s her name? How far did she walk? How many of her kids are dead?”

Some journalists leaned down over the mothers to talk to them, some stuck cameras inches from their faces. I stood further away when taking the photos, I sat down in the dirt to interview people. I thought I was better, but I wasn’t. I was just more conceited.

I remember looking up and seeing a girl who worked at a U.N. aid agency crying. I motioned to her to get out — her tears as self-indulgent as my sitting in the dirt. And then we leave. Thank you, we say. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for holding up your dying baby for my camera. And thank you for your dignity. Thank you for giving it to me. Thank you for letting me have it.

Because that’s the thing. An Ethiopian girl told me last week that she cried as she watched foreign journalists interviewing a Somali woman in a Kenyan refugee camp. “All she had left was her dignity,” she said. “And then they took that, too.”

She was right. And I knew that I had done that. Many, many times.

I used to tell myself that it was okay because what I did was important. A U.N. official once excitedly phoned me at 7am to tell me the U.S. had donated millions of dollars to his agency because someone from the government had read a story of mine in the Washington Post.

Another aid worker approached me in a bar in Addis Ababa. “Hey! That story you wrote about that woman? That woman who had a kid die every year for the last four years and now only has one left? Awesome, man! Awesome!”

Her name was Ayantu. I don’t know if her son, Hirbu, is still alive.

Last weekend I was there again. The U.N. loaded me and some other journalists onto one of their planes in Nairobi and we flew to a tiny village near Somalia to meet people suffering from hunger, to ask them our questions, to find the sorriest tales possible.

We jumped into an imperious row of white jeeps when we landed and swept into the village. Doors flew open, everybody walked very fast, everybody was very important.

I saw six people all firing their cameras at one bemused woman. I saw aid workers fawning over the head of the World Food Programme. I saw soldiers fanning out to protect us. And then I saw the man with the iPad. I stood and stared for some time, enjoying the deliciousness of what was one of the strangest things I had ever seen in my life.

I raised the camera.

This is what I’ll write, I thought. Not about another Ayantu. Not again.

Because it’s a cycle. African governments know that drought is coming and they don’t prepare. Foreign charities working there talk about long-term plans to help people become self-sufficient but they’ve been failing to achieve them for 20 years. It’s as much about politics and war and poor economic policies as it is about no rain. I’m no expert but I know that much.

I also know it’s wrong that every few years we’re faced with an “emergency” that could have been prevented, that aid groups must frantically try to raise money to respond, that journalists need to find emaciated babies at death’s door and film and photograph and write about them before the world gives a damn.

Part of me felt bad for publishing the photo of the man with the iPad. Because he was a good person doing his job. And because we are the same.

He comes with an iPad, I come with a notebook.

Both of us steal dignity and neither of us belong.

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Barry Malone is an Irish journalist who has worked in the Horn and East Africa since 2006, first living in Ethiopia and now in Uganda. He reports on politics, life and economics across the region for Reuters and takes the occasional picture. Twitter: @malonebarry

 

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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) 

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Women and girls, caught in a small sandstorm, fetch water in Wajir in this photo released on July 21, 2011. A wide swath of east Africa, including Kenya and Ethiopia, has been hit by years of severe drought and the United Nations says two regions of southern Somalia are suffering the worst famine for 20 years. (Reuters/Jakob Dall/Danish Red Cross) # 

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Somali refugee Kadija Ibrahim Yousef, 67, sits in her makeshift hut on the edge of the Hagadera refugee camp, which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 24, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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A Somali man accesses a water point at the Dadaab refugee camp on July 4, 2011. With a population of 370,000, Dadaab is the world's largest refugee camp even though it was built for just 90,000. According to Doctors Without Borders, the number of people seeking refugee keeps swelling and Dadaab will house 450,000 refugees by the end of the year, or twice the population of Geneva.(Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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A mother is measured to see if she is malnourished at a nutritional center near Lodwar in Turkana, Kenya, on July 15, 2011.(Reuters/Kate Holt/UNICEF) # 

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Four-year-old Luli Nunow, suffering from severe acute malnutrition, sits in a ward of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) NGO in Dadaab, on July 22, 2011. MSF is currently treating over 7,000 children for malnutrition in this, one of three camps at Dadaab.(Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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A Somalian refugee boy collects firewood on the outskirts of the Ifo refugee camp, which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 23, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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Somali refugees who recently crossed the border from Somalia into southern Ethiopia cluster between two food tents as they wait to be called to collect food aid at the Kobe refugee camp, on July 19, 2011. Ethiopian authorities and non-governmental organizations have accommodated almost 25,000 refugees at the camp since it was set up less then three weeks ago.(Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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A woman waits for food rations at a feeding center in Lolkuta, near Wajir, on July 21, 2011. The UN's World Programme Programme was preparing on July 26, 2011 to airlift food aid into the Somali capital Mogadishu, but efforts were hampered by last minute paperwork in Kenya. An estimated 3.7 million people in Somalia -- around a third of the population -- are on the brink of starvation and millions more in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda have been struck by the worst drought in the region in 60 years.(Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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An aid worker using an iPad photographs the rotting carcass of a cow in Wajir, near the Kenya-Somalia border, on July 23, 2011. Since drought gripped the Horn of Africa, and especially since famine was declared in parts of Somalia, the international aid industry has swept in and out of refugee camps and remote hamlets in branded planes and snaking lines of white 4x4s. This humanitarian, diplomatic and media circus is necessary every time people go hungry in Africa, analysts say, because governments - both African and foreign - rarely respond early enough to looming catastrophes. Combine that with an often simplistic explanation of the causes of famine, and a growing band of aid critics say parts of Africa are doomed to a never-ending cycle of ignored early warnings, media appeals and emergency U.N. feeding - rather than a transition to lasting self-sufficiency. Picture taken July 23, 2011. (Reuters/Barry Malone) # 

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An aerial view of the Dadaab Refugee camp in eastern Kenya, where the influx of Somali's displaced by a ravaging famine remains high, on July 23, 2011. The European Union Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva has vowed to do all that is possible to help 12 million people struggling from extreme drought across the Horn of Africa, boosting aid by 27.8 million euros ($40 million). The funds come on top of almost 70 million euros ($100 million) the bloc has already contributed as assistance in the worst regional drought in decades, affecting parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti and Uganda. (Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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Newly arrived Somalian refugees settle on the edge of the Ifo refugee camp which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement on July 22, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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Nado Mahad Abdilli builds a makeshift shelter for her family in Ifo 2, an area earmarked for refugee camp expansion, but yet to be approved by the Kenyan government, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on Monday, July 11, 2011. U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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Somali men carry a severely malnourished child, under the instruction of a African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) peacekeeper, from a camp for internally displaced people to the peacekeeping operations headquarters where the child was admitted for emergency medical treatment, in Mogadishu, on July 15, 2011. (Reuters/Stuart Price/AU-UN IST PHOTO) # 

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Somalian refugees wait in the registration area of the Dagahaley refugee camp which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement, on July 23, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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Used food tins lie stacked near a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee, IRC, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, on Tuesday, July 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) # 

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Mohammed Osman, a malnourished seventy-year-old man from southern Somalia, lies on a bed at the Benadir Hospital in Mogadishu, on July 15, 2011. (Abdurashid Abikar/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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Refugee children walk past emaciated cattle in the outskirts of the Dagahaley refugee camp, which makes up part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement, on July 23, 2011. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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Sheik Yare Abdi washes the body of four-year-old Aden Ibrahim in preparation for burial in accordance with Somali tradition, inside the makeshift shelter where Aden's family lives among other newly-arrived Somali refugees on the outskirts of Ifo II Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on Tuesday, July 12, 2011. Doctors were unable to save Aden, who died of diarrhea-related dehydration after four days of inpatient care. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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A Somali refugee herds goats through the Ifo refugee camp, part of the giant Dadaab refugee settlement, on July 24, 2011.(Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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Abdirisak Mursal, 3, a malnourished child from southern Somalia, gets treatment in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, on July 16, 2011. Thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu over the past two weeks seeking assistance and the number is increasing by the day, due to lack of water and food. The worst drought in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates, with parts of Kenya and Somalia experiencing pre-famine conditions, the United Nations has said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh) # 

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A boy from the family of Rage Mohamed is caught in wind-blown dust as his family builds a makeshift shelter around a thorny acacia tree, on the outskirts of Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on July 10, 2011. It took the 15-person family five days to make the journey from their drought-stricken home in Somalia. They spent two nights sleeping in the open air under the tree prior to receiving tarps on Sunday. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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A Somalian refugee digs a latrine on the outskirts of the Ifo refugee camp on July 23, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya.(Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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A Somali woman waits to be registered as a refugee at Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, on Wednesday, July 13, 2011.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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Somalis from southern Somalia receive food at a feeding center in Mogadishu, on July 26, 2011. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh) # 

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Two-year-old, Aden Salaad, looks up toward his mother, unseen, as she bathes him in a tub at a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital, where Aden is receiving treatment for malnutrition, in Dagahaley Camp, on July 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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Hassan Ali prays by the roadside as he walks from the Somali-Kenyan border, just 2km away, on July 23, 2011. Hassan left his home in Dinsour fifteen days ago, and is walking to join his family in the Kenyan refugee complex at Dadaab, having fled the drought that has ravaged the Horn of Africa. (Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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A unidentified child awaits treatment in a field hospital of Medecins Sans Frontieres, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, on July 25, 2011.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) # 

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A Somali man leads his drought-stricken camels to a water point near Harfo, 70 km from Galkayo northwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on July 20, 2011. (Reuters/Thomas Mukoya) # 

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Internally displaced Somalis receive grain and cooking oil from the Organization of Islamic Co-Operation (OIC), south of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on July 11, 2011. (Reuters/Omar Faruk) # 

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A newly arrived Somali refugee child awaits medical examinations at the Dadaab refugee camp, on July 23, 2011. Aid agencies are unable to reach more than two million Somalis facing starvation in the famine-struck Horn of Africa country where Islamist insurgents control much of the worst-hit areas, the U.N.'s food agency said on Saturday. (Reuters/Kabir Dhanji) # 

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A Somali refugee woman holds a high-energy biscuit ration at the entrance to the registration area of the Ifo refugee camp on July 24, 2011 in Dadaab, Kenya. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) # 

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A man sits in front of his makeshift shelter at a camp for internally displaced people in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, on July 15, 2011.(Reuters/Feisal Omar) # 

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An aid worker rests whilst giving out flour in a food distribution center in Dagahaley Refugee Camp, on July 22, 2011.(Phil Moore/AFP/Getty Images) # 

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Somalis fleeing hunger in their drought-stricken nation walk along the main road leading from the Somalian border to the refugee camps around Dadaab, Kenya, on Wednesday, July 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) # 

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Suldana Mohamed, 28, carries a child in Barmil on July 21, 2011. Suldana has six children and finds it harder and harder to provide them with water and food. Three of her children are not yet in school, where they would receive one meal a day.(Reuters/Jakob Dall/Danish Red Cross) # 

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(1 of 2) A Somali doctor treats a malnourished child, as the child's mother looks on at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, on July 21, 2011.(Reuters/Feisal Omar) # 

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(2 of 2) A Somali woman weeps for her dead child at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, on July 21, 2011. (Reuters/Feisal Omar) # 

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The worst famine in a generation is gripping East Africa, where more than 11 million people are struggling with the drought, the United Nations says. The problem is especially hitting the 3.7 million in Somalia, where neither the government nor aid agencies can fully operate in areas controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants.   (20 total photos)

1of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somalis shelter with their belongings outside a reception center, where they slept after being registered as refugees in Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, Wednesday, July 13, 2011. More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are confronting the worst drought in decades and need urgent assistance to stay alive, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. Ban called an emergency meeting Tuesday morning with the heads of U.N. agencies to discuss the worsening drought in East Africa, which along with fighting in Somalia has created a humanitarian crisis.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)   

2of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)A unidentified child awaits treatment in a field hospital of Doctors Without Borders, MSF, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, Monday, July 25, 2011. A U.N. agency is hosting an emergency meeting in Rome on Monday July 25, to mobilize action to fight famine in Somalia, Kenya and other drought-hit nations in East Africa, estimating that more than 11-million people need help in the drought-hit region. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)   

3of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Soldiers from the Somalian transitional government forces patrol the border town of Dhobley, Somalia, Sunday, July 24, 2011. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)   

4of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Hibo Mohamud, a 3-year-old malnourished child from southern Somalia is comforted on bed at Banadir hospital, Mogadishu, Somalia, Tuesday, July 26, 2011, after fleeing from southern Somalia. 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 _ a crisis intervention to keep hungry refugees from dying along what an official calls the "roads of death." The foray into the famine zone is a desperate attempt to reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somalis whom aid workers have not yet been able to help. Tens of thousands already have trekked to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, hoping to get aid in refugee camps. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)   

Photo Essays continue below

 

5of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somalis from southern Somalia receive food at a feeding center in Mogadishu, Somalia, Tuesday, 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 _ a crisis intervention to keep hungry refugees from dying along what an official calls the "roads of death." The foray into the famine zone is a desperate attempt to reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somalis whom aid workers have not yet been able to help. Tens of thousands already have trekked to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, hoping to get aid in refugee camps. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)   

6of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somalis from southern Somalia carrying their belongings make their way to a new camp for internally displaced refugees in Mogadishu Tuesday, 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 _ a crisis intervention to keep hungry refugees from dying along what an official calls the "roads of death." The foray into the famine zone is a desperate attempt to reach at least 175,000 of the 2.2 million Somalis whom aid workers have not yet been able to help. Tens of thousands already have trekked to neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia, hoping to get aid in refugee camps. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)   

7of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somali children ride on top of baggage in a donkey-drawn cart as their family heads from the Somali border for the refugee camps around Dadaab, Kenya, Wednesday, July 13, 2011. More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are confronting the worst drought in decades and need urgent assistance to stay alive, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday. Ban called an emergency meeting Tuesday morning with the heads of U.N. agencies to discuss the worsening drought in East Africa, which along with fighting in Somalia has created a humanitarian crisis.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)   

8of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somali refugee and goat herder Adan Issick walks past unoccupied refugee housing at Ifo II, a camp expansion trapped in limbo as it awaits final approval by the Kenyan government, outside Dadaab, Kenya, Tuesday, July 12, 2011. U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)   

9of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Men shovel dusty soil into the grave of 3-year-old Nasro Ahmed Gure, whose parents say died of illnesses related to malnutrition, in an area where newly-arrived Somali refugees have settled on the outskirts of Dagahaley Camp, outside Dadaab, Kenya, Tuesday, July 12, 2011. U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres said Sunday that drought-ridden Somalia is the "worst humanitarian disaster" in the world, after meeting with refugees who endured unspeakable hardship to reach the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. People die here every day, though no one can provide a reliable estimate of the drought deaths.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)   

10of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Displaced woman walk as the wind blows in the border town of Dhobley, Somalia, Sunday, July 24, 2011. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)   

11of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Displaced people gather in the shade as Somali transitional government forces drive past in the border town of Dhobley, Somalia, Sunday, July 24, 2011. Some thousands of people are displaced as they search for aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia.(AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)   

12of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)A unidentified child reacts at a local hospital as she is fed through a tube during treatment for malnutrition at the border town of Dadaab, Kenya, Saturday, July 23, 2011. People who can barely stay on their feet due to hunger walk for days or even weeks through parched wasteland to find a meal and water. Many of them also set out to seek help for their ailing children. The drought in the Horn of Africa and the famine in Somalia has left more than two million children at risk of starvation. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)   

13of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)A doctor examines Mihag Gedi Farah, a seven- month-old child with a weight of 3.4kg, in a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee, IRC, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, Tuesday, 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)   

14of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somali women displaced by drought, wait to receive rations at a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, July 20, 2011.Parts of southern Somalia are suffering from famine, a U.N. official said Wednesday, and tens of thousands of Somalis have already died in the worst hunger emergency in a generation. The Horn of Africa is suffering a devastating drought compounded by war, neglect and spiraling prices. Some areas in the region have not had such a low rainfall in 60 years, aid group Oxfam said. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) 

15of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somali women from southern Somalia walk after receiving rations at a displaced camp in Mogadishu, Somalia, Friday, July 15, 2011. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu over the past two weeks seeking assistance and the number is increasing by the day, due to lack of water and food, as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa has sparked a severe food crisis and high malnutrition rates. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor)  

16of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Women from southern Somalia hold their malnourished children as they await treatment in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sunday, July 24, 2011. The World Food Program can't reach 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid in militant-controlled areas of Somalia, WFP's director said Saturday, meaning refugee camps in nearby Kenya and Ethiopia are likely to continue seeing thousands of new refugees each week. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)  

17of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)A malnourished child from southern Somalia is washed in a herbal solution by her mother in a makeshift shelter in Mogadishu, Somalia, Monday, July 25, 2011. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia.(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)  

18of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Somalis from southern Somalia perform funeral prayers with relatives of a malnourished child who died, Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at a refugee camp in Mogadishu, Somalia. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said Saturday they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia.(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)  

19of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)In this Sunday, July 24, 2011 photo women line up to sign up for the World Food Program emergency distributions in Dolo, Somalia. Some thousands of people have arrived in Mogadishu seeking aid and The World Food Program executive director Josette Sheeran said they can't reach the estimated 2.2 million Somalis in desperate need of aid who are in militant-controlled areas of Somalia. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso)  

20of 20Link to this photo | Comments about this photo essay (1)Children sit as they wait treatment at a field hospital of Doctors Without Borders, MSF, in the town of Dadaab, Kenya, Monday, July 25, 2011. A U.N. agency is hosting an emergency meeting in Rome on Monday July 25, to mobilize action to fight famine in Somalia, Kenya and other drought-hit nations in East Africa, estimating that more than 11-million people need help in the drought-hit region. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) 

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