80 percent of Somali refugees at camp are female
DADAAB REFUGEE CAMP, Kenya - The Hagadera neighborhood of Dadaab Camp was first settled by refugees back in 1992, during one of Somalia's endless civil wars.
CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley reports the new refugees are staking a claim on the edges of the old camp.
"People have settled here because there is no more room in the camp," said Kellie Leeson of the International Rescue Committee. "The camp is totally full. The camp was built for 30,000 people and now we have 124,000 people living in Hagdera camp."
Leeson said "80 percent" of the refugees are women and girls.
(Scroll down for an update on a starving Somali child.)
So many men have died or stayed behind this is a crisis of women and children. We met one of them, Hajo the day she arrived with seven children. Her youngest Safia sat in a box still working on the wrappers of the crackers they'd been given.
Complete Coverage: East Africa Famine
This is what it is to be a refugee. They've lost their homes, their wealth and their country. But walk around Hagadera and you realize, you're with the toughest people you've ever met--people with lessons to teach, about life and death in an unforgiving land.
