Stark images of misery in Somalia spark action

A drought in the Horn of Africa has destroyed crops for more than a year. Refugees are pouring out of Somalia, the failed, lawless state. Lucky ones reach refugee camps just over the border in Kenya. Already there are 450,000 thousand people jammed in one those camps that was designed for 90,000.

In all, right now, 12 million people are at risk of starvation.

Some remarkable pictures have been coming in from the growing humanitarian disaster in East Africa.

Horn of Africa famine: How to help
Somalia refugees: No food to break Ramadan fast
Obama says Somalia deserves more attention

New York Times photojournalist Tyler Hicks recently returned from Somalia with pictures of the starving. CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley talked to Tyler Hicks on Tuesday about his trip and what he saw there.

Tyler Hicks' New York Times photo essay on Somalia

Pelley: Tyler, your pictures of course are all about individuals, but I'm curious about what we can't see. Can you give us an idea of how many people are affected this way?

Hicks: It's not a place that you have to look very far. Everywhere in the city there are people streaming in. Particularly the thing that jumped out at me were the amount of children and how incredibly frail they were. There are women - every single one is carrying what looks like skin and bones and I honestly - there were moments that I didn't notice that the child they were carrying was alive until they shifted and you could see that the child was moving.

Pelley: In terms of the people that are truly starving that we see in your photos are we talking about dozens, hundreds, thousands?

Hicks: Thousands, many thousands of people, and the fact that they're coming into Mogadishu, one of the most unsafe cities in the entire world, says a lot about the condition of what they're experiencing in their villages and how desperate they have to be.

Tyler Hicks/NY Times

Pelley: One of your photos (at left) is particularly striking. It's a photograph of a child lying in a fetal position clearly starving to death. I wonder if you could tell us the story of that picture.

Hicks: This particular child really struck me, how skinny this child was and the position of how the child was laying on the table was really striking and I thought it got the point across of how desperate it is there.

Pelley: You were in Mogadishu for four days. I wonder in the time you were there, any signs of improvement, any hopeful signs?

Hicks: Not at all. If anything, it appears that this would probably get worse before it gets better. They're arriving literally with nothing, and it's a very desperate situation for them.

[robham777]

One would think that the ultra benevolent U.N. would have some solution for this kind of situation. Many of us know how much of a joke they are, and many more should be asking questions about their relevance in world affairs.

[geo92646]

We need to help poor people, no mater where they are. Dont blame the people for the government actions. I have knowing very wealthy people my whole life. Most give a lot to charities, 10% or more of there income. People would give more if we knew the money was being use as we intened. It is the people that need to give, not the government. The government roll should be to insure the money gets to where it was intended to go, not in some greed ass pocket.
That should be the only roll the USA should play. All the turely poor needs help to get back on the feet. There are poor that do not want to work, or make the money under ground with no taxes, and there are the turely poor that need help.

[tfnsc]

America needs to take care of Americans first!!!! We need to look in our own backyards and help where we can!!! All the money will not change Somalia. This problem has been going on for years!!!!!
We have 50% unemployment, kids who struggle to eat in the summer because school is closed, Foreclosure, homeless children, a government that is ineffective,....kinda sounds like a third world country??? AMERICA FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wardove]

This is sad ,they have no oil so no one helps.I want to help them , i have noticed this years ago when bush was in office.It time to help , really help.usa is fine their are no kids in usa that look like this.CHILDREN FIRST
GREED is evil
everyone talks about americas values lets see these values ,send me their i will do anythang to help them!

[geo92646]

We need to help poor people, no mater where they are. Dont blame the people for the government actions. I have knowing very wealthy people my whole life. Most give a lot to charities, 10% or more of there income. People would give more if we knew the money was being use as we intened. It is the people that need to give, not the government. The government roll should be to insure the money gets to where it was intended to go, not in some greed ass pocket.
That should be the only roll the USA should play. All the turely poor needs help to get back on the feet. There are poor that do not want to work, or make the money under ground with no taxes, and there are the turely poor that need help.

[geo92646]

We need to help poor people, no mater where they are. Dont blame the people for the government actions. I have knowing very wealthy people my whole life. Most give a lot to charities, 10% or more of there income. People would give more if we knew the money was being use as we intened. It is the people that need to give, not the government. The government roll should be to insure the money gets to where it was intended to go, not in some greed ass pocket.
That should be the only roll the USA should play. All the turely poor needs help to get back on the feet. There are poor that do not want to work, or make the money under ground with no taxes, and there are the turely poor that need help.

[cherrybrown]

They have been starving and killing each other forever. Let them. Clean that gene pool.

[tfnsc]

AMEN!!!!!!!!!! TAKE CARE OF AMERICA FIRST!!!!!

[caingurl-1]

Yall must be some miserable bastards to say a thing like that...I am a firm believer that for all who mock and laugh at others no matter what the race, will be made to walk in their shoes one day...GOD is a great GOD, and vengeance is his!!!

[3thingsuneed]

"Something" has to be done in the Horn Of Africa in Somalia. The Militants-Sahbab(sp)there has to be somehow to break this group up to let aid come in and help these Human Beings that are starving in front of the World's eye..We as a Nation can not stand by and let this continue.

[wardove]

Amen

[Nnmrnq]

Strange how obama will initiate a civil war in Libya and have drone attacks in other countries while escalating wars in Afghanistan and maintaining a continuous 49,000 troops in Iraq.

Yet he won't airdrop bags of rice to starving folks in Somalia?

Perhaps Obama hates black people?

[wardove]

He is not fully in control of the doings in the whitehouse but maybe it is time he told ppl. this is how it will be!

[commenter777]

This is the future of the middle-class in the US. Vote democrat unless you want your children to look like this.

[agnesdeo]

Where are their rich Muslim sisters and brothers within the Mid-East? Their faith tradition requires them to help their own poor hungry sisters and brothers--where is their oil money going to?
Also, I am sure that Christian charties have attempted to offer assistance; but their government resists or reject the help.
These poor people are victims of their own military and national goverments.

[oldman67]

Are we really the humanitarins we claim to be?

[wardove]

DidHeSayThat I am at a loss of words , the hate that comes from your posts why are you so angry ?

[caingurl-1]

That is a good question that I'm sure he probably can't answer...