Full coverage: Beyond 7 billion

The landscape around the three refugee camps that make up the Dadaab complex in eastern Kenya is unforgiving.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A farmer digs a trench in Kenya’s Mwingi district, hoping to capture any rainwater that might come.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

New arrivals wait to be admitted into Dadaab, the world’s largest complex of refugee camps.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

The refugees often arrive at Dadaab weak and sick, such as this child who threw up while waiting to be processed.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

People lined up to receive food are funneled through tunnels similar to cattle chutes.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Workers in the Dadaab complex unload cornmeal provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A woman holds a severely malnourished child at the Ifo camp in Dadaab.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A hospital worker at Dadaab’s Ifo camp pinches the loose skin of a child.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Two-year-old Saad Siyat gasps, near death.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)