Video: World News

video transcript

NOTE: CONTAINS IMAGES THAT MIGHT BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS. The graveyard is growing outside a dusty refugee camp in Dalo Ado, Ethiopia. This funeral is for one and a half-year-old Sahro Mahammad. Mahammad's parents gathered around their baby's body with relatives before father carried son to the ceremony. The boy died of dehydration in a camp where malnutrition and disease are overwhelming medical personnel. A deadly cocktail of drought and war in Somalia has caused widespread famine and sent refugees fleeing into Kenya and neighboring Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates nearly 12 million people in the region face starvation. A clinic in Dalo Ado is crowded with children. Many of the most vulnerable do not arrive in time, says Medecins san Frontieres doctor Carolina Nanclares. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAROLINA NANCLARES SAYING: "The mortality rate amongst the malnourished children is very high, and especially in these conditions in which the children are coming with very very severe complications and very very late some times. So the care that we can provide sometimes is too late for us to be able to save everyone's life." Malnutrition in Ethiopia is now three times higher than emergency level. Katharine Jackson, Reuters.