Return to Transcripts main page

Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Urgent Need for Aid in Somalia; Stock Market Continue to Plunge

Aired August 10, 2011 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Piers, Thanks very much.

Good evening everyone, we're coming to you from Mogadishu tonight. It is 10:00 in the East Coast of the United States. It is 5:00 a.m. here in Mogadishu.

What a day we have seen. We're going to take you tonight inside a children's hospital, not far from where I'm standing, a children's hospital where many parents are coming every single day with their desperately ill children, children suffering from severe malnutrition. They come to the hospital hoping that they will find medical supplies there and relief there. But all too often they find Doctors who are simply overwhelmed, doctor whose don't have the equipment, who don't have resources to adequately care for the children. They do what they can but so many of these kids are dying.

It shouldn't happen on any day but it does, it happens every single day. And we saw it for ourselves and you're going to see it tonight. According to the United Nations 600,000 children on the brink of starvation, 600,000.

As we learned last night, the world food program now has less than three weeks of food aid left. We're going to talk to U-2's singer Bono and Somalia's (K9) tonight. They are going to join us. We will show you also how you can help, how you can make a difference. 600,000 kids, we are going to telling their stories tonight.

We begin though with breaking news back home. A problem with the developing road would be lucky to have but it's jeopardizing a lot of futures back home, not mention the global economy. Asian markets opening lower after another massive drop on Wall Street.

Another 500-plus point drop for the DOW. The market plunging. They climbing midday. They losing all steam all afternoon. Investors today are worried about French banks becoming insolvent. They worried about American banks, too and their exposure to Europe's troubles. Bank of America, CITI group each down 10 percent today. Some calls for some kind of action in Washington for President Obama to do something.

The question is what if anything can he do? What the federal reserve can do? What can Congress do?

Joining me, our Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi, Senior Political Analyst David Gergen and in Washington Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin.

Ali, What about this? So this was all about France?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is an interesting question you asked Anderson because the thing that triggers sell-offs these days is not the real reason behind. But it's such a, it's such a nervous market that a rumor, un substantiated rumor that S&P was going to downgrade France from its Tripe-A rating caused a massive sell-off on France's big bank. And you know, the sell-offs on banks as you remember Anderson make us think about 2008 and times gone by when banks get into trouble and we get a lending freeze.

We don't have that situation now. We have a nervous market that again had a very big reaction to something that wasn't even substantiated but right now people don't want to be caught holding the bag, if there are these major sell-offs and in taking their money out to be safe, they're encouraging these sell-offs.

I should tell you, gold, another record high, touching $1800 an hour. U.S. ten-year note, which is how our bonds, our mortgages are priced, is down again, it costs the U.S. less money to borrow than it did on Monday and less than it did on Friday before the downgrade.

COOPER: David Gergen, as you look at this from a political perspective what do you see?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITIVAL ANALYST: Anderson, I do think it's not just the rumor in Europe. There's a deeper feeling there that the Germans, who are paying for their last potential bailouts just don't have the money nor the will to go the full route. And there's a real sense eventually that this European things will go apart, you will find it here.

But also, Anderson, very importantly here and Jessica can speak to this, there's a growing sense that there's no one in charge. Normally in a crisis there's someone who steps forward, usually the president, who steps forward and you have a sense that someone has their hands on the wheel and knows where we're going and can help guide the ship. There's a sense right now in our politics that no one is in charge. Not the president. Not Ben Bernanke. There's no Walter Cronkite. There's no one here to give us that sense of reassurance.

COOPER: Jessica, what about that? How does the White House see it?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, Anderson, the White House will never comment on the daily gyrations in the stock market. What I am hearing from Democrats who are close to the White House and officials here is this reaction to what David is talking about. This sort of clamor around town here calling on the president to take some bold action. This call by a lot of Op-ed writers for the president to do something to prove that he's not weak and powerless at this point and the general pushed back you get is - that this is a sort of what Op-ed writers do in August. That this is sort of media hysteria in a sense of August doldrums really and that there's too much of a reactive vibrate now in Washington and that the stock market isn't the only measure of the economy and the White House has a plan that they have been working on and are focused on and we are going to see the president out in the heartland next week talking about jobs. He's meeting with the Fed chairman. He's meeting with the Treasury secretary. And he's on his game. And he has to do this hand in glove with congress. That is the message I'm getting and it's the song book they are singing from.

COOPER: David, is this just a question of summer doldrums and op-ed writers?

DAVID GERGEN, FMR PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: No, not at all. I mean the media is not driving this wild ride we're on in the stock market that's wiping out people's 401(k)s and hurting a lot of people. I think what Americans are looking for now is some seriousness in Washington and frankly that's not going to come from some bus tour on a campaign trail from the president.

I think a growing number of people think he ought to get off the campaign trail, pull people together and see if he can't get some answer, a bipartisan answer, on jobs.

COOPER: Ali, what could the president be doing? I mean how much can a president affect not just the stock market but the economy in general?

VELSHI: Anderson, look, this is serious. No question this is not normal gyrations in the stock market. And while Jessica's right, the stock market is not the whole economy, same thing with gas prices, right? They're not the whole economy but when they are way up, it hits people in the pocketbook. People are getting frozen by this. I think the campaigning absolutely has to stop.

In France the government has been called back from vacation. In London which is dealing with rioting in the street, the government has come back. It kind of is unacceptable that Washington is not fully on this right now and that the president is out there giving speeches in the heartland as he plans to.

This is a crisis. He had a meeting with Ben Bernanke today and all the White House did was release a statement to say he had a meeting with Ben Bernanke and they talked about jobs and the economy. Everyone is talking about jobs and the economy. We need guidance. We need a solution. And we need confidence. There's an absolute lack of confidence in leadership as David says as reflected by the stock market.

Remember, the stock market is all of us. It's all of our 401(k)s and all of our I.R.A.s. There needs to be some leadership here.

COOPER: Jessica, is there any chance that they would try to get Congress back early? They're in recess for five weeks?

YELLIN: They are emphatic that's not the move they're going to make. But it is a huge concern here and something that they continue to emphasize, Anderson, which is you can't do it alone. And even if you talk to top economists who want the president to take bold action, when you press them and say what can the president do on his own? Ali said it, David said it, there's a limit.

You know you need Congress to - they control the purse strings. So with Congress out of town, the president is limited. He is not going out and making a call for some new sweeping bolder action. But Washington right now is not in a mood for some sort of big compromise. You don't feel it in the air. There's not a vibe of deal making in town. And with Congress gone, there isn't going to be a deal.

So bottom line is, no message from the White House they're calling them back and so no bold moves on the horizon, Anderson.

COOPER: Jessica Yellin, David Gergen, Ali Velshi, thanks.

Let us know if you think Congress should be called back. We're on facebook or follow me on twitter @andersoncooper. I'm just tweeting some tonight and I'll try to tweet more.

Bono joins us shortly to talk about what the world can do for the people here and also hiphop artist Kanan who was born here in Somalia and race were.

When we come back, close up look at the need - we have just a stunning day today at a hospital near here. We'll show you what we saw. It's really going to open your eyes.

We also visit a feeding center where gunfire erupted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (on-camera): Nineteen years ago when I was here during the last famine at feeding centers - there's shots going off and people are running -- you hear shooting a lot in Mogadishu. It's very difficult to know where exactly it's coming from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Dangerous and tragic times in Somalia, more on that in just a moment.

First, let's check in with Isha Sesay. Isha, what are you following?

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORESPONDENT: Anderson, a massive police presence on the streets of London tonight. The government clamping down after four days of rioting. The latest on that and the chaos outside the capital being blamed for the deaths of three young men who were trying to protect their neighborhood.

That and much more when "360" continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We said at the top of the program but it can't be over- stated, the United Nations telling us that 600,000 children are on the brink of starvation. Six hundred thousands that should be a headline in every paper, every newscast every day as long as this famine lasts. 600,000 children. Along with that headline, others follow. The world food program running out of food. Refugee camps filling up. Graveyards are overflowing.

A band of Muslim extremists brutalizing the country, terrorizing people they have them for years. They have been preventing food aid from getting through in the South. Even Medical basics like childhood vaccinations. Kids are dying of measles here. They are dying in mumps. Diarrhea's killing them. Starvation makes diseases, back home barely worth a doctor's visit, makes those diseases deadly. And it's the fighting that turns a drought into a famine into mass starvation. A man-made catastrophe.

Now, we saw it today at a feeding center here in Mogadishu. Our visit punctuated by gunfire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (on-camera): Nineteen years ago when I was here during last famine at feeding centers - there's shots going off now and people are running. You hear shooting a lot here in Mogadishu. It's difficult to know where exactly it's coming from. But 19 years ago at a feeding center like this they would have used big vats of food to feed people. It wasn't a very effective way to get severely malnourished kids healthy again.

Today they use this product. It's called plumping out. It's revolutionized the way malnutrition is treated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It's revolutionized the way malnutrition's treated because it's very cheap. You don't need to refrigerate it. You don't need a lot of education learn how just to give it out to your kids. And so, rather than having to hospitalize large numbers of kids and give them fortified milk they can basically just can hand out this peanut paste as peanut and it's literary bringing kids back from the brink of death.

Now remember, Al-Shabaab, this terrorist group, has just pulled out in Mogadishu and African union troops, there's about 9,000 of them, patrol the streets here. But there are snipers and suicide bombers to still look out for. This is the capital of the world's best known failed state. It's true now and sadly it's been true back 19 years ago when I was visiting Somalia for the last famine. I was in a town called Bidoa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (on-camera): In the background you can hear ak-47 shots firing right now. I'm at a feeding center run by an organization called C.A.R.E. There are about 30 or 40 this feeding centers run by different organizations throughout the city of Bidoa.

You'd almost expect there would be pandemonium here. There's shooting in the distance. People waiting for food but there's really not. In a way starvation seems to suck the life out of you. You just sit and wait. There's nothing more you can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Besides the fact that I look radically older, it's amazing how much is exactly the same here. That was Bidoa in 19 years ago.

Bidoa today, by the way, it's still in the hands of Al-Shabaab. Mogadishu today, they're gone, but the dangers here remain.

There's hope from seeing lives saved and anger when even the best efforts fall short. You experience all these emotions one after another, sometimes all at once. This is what we saw today in Mogadishu at one of the big of the hospitals here that treats kids.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER (voice-over): There are so many kids in the hospital the new arrivals are being treated in the halls. There are coughs and cries and you don't hear much complaining. That take energy, perhaps, and there isn't much of that.

Many children and their families have walked for weeks just to get here.

This little boy can barely take any more steps. There's no running water, no electricity, after 20 years of fighting in Mogadishu, there's not much left at all. A country which is the epicenter of a famine, there is a catastrophe. You would expect there would be more medicine. Could you expect people getting fortified milk or getting clumpy nut but you don't see any nurse. Its just mothers sitting with their kids and many kids end up dying.

Mothers try to keep the flies at bay. Fathers soothe their sickly kids. The worry, the fear, it's the same the world over. What parent can stand it when their child is in pain?

Many kids are able to bounce back with quick intervention they gain weight day after day. For others, however, the malnutrition is too far along.

CNN's Nima Elbagir introduced us to (Abdula Hosan) lost a daughter and now his 18-month-old son is sick as well.

You must be worried about your child. How long has your child been sick?

For the last six months he's been ill, he says. But as the famine has tightened around us, no one has been able to help us, so we came here and now we're just hopeful.

In the corner of the room, the man and his wife sit in silence. Between them we notice a small pile of cloth. It turns out it's covering the body of their son. His name was Ali. He was just one year old.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN ORRESPONDENT: He came up from Al-Shabaab and it was so difficult to get out, it took them so long to get out, by the time they arrived there was nothing anybody could do for him. He died two hours ago.

COOPER: This child has just died?

ELBAGIR: Yes.

COOPER: And what will they do now?

ELBAGIR: They don't have enough money to bury him. So they are sitting and hoping that someone will come. In this situation, nobody has any money but they hope together people try to put money in together when things like this happen and they can raise the funds, otherwise they have no means of burying him.

COOPER: (Mohammad and Regia) have already lost their two other children. Ali was the only child they had left.

What will they do now?

ELBAGIR: They said they don't know. They are just going to - for them the most important thing is to try to find a way to bury the child and then they'll try to figure out what they can do here. They have nothing here. They have nothing here. They left everything in the areas where they come from and they have nothing. And the only reason they took the risk was to save the baby and now the baby is dead.

COOPER: You have seen a lot of this over the last few weeks.

ELBAGIR: Yes. Mogadishu is always difficult. Somalia is always difficult. People have been dying here for a while from the violence and insecurity. But the famine is you know the numbers here are extraordinary. The U.N. is estimating that million, million are going to die if the aid pipeline isn't strengthened, if more funding doesn't come in to sustain the aid effort here.

COOPER: The aid effort is under way but for too many kids it may already be too late. They are not numbers. Not statistics. They are boys and girls, names and with parents, boys and girls who have never had a fair chance at life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

With me again tonight is Dr. Sanjay Gupta and we should point out that we did help that family to bury their child. We thought it was the human thing to do. But you know there are so many others. You want to help everybody and yet there's not at times anything you can do.

ELBAGIR: And you know, we keep talking about the short full in the funding that the U.N. is receiving and you go into the hospital and you see what that funding means to people here.

We were talking to the U.N. humanitarian coordinator a few days ago and he said reality is that people are going to die. That's just what's going to happen here now. The issue becomes how many more people are going to die before that funding comes in and before donations step up. COOPER: And I was just stunned, I mean in this hospital and Sanjay, I wish you were with us today because I mean in this hospital, this is a major hospital in Mogadishu, a city which has been, you know, at war for 20 years and conflict is at the epicenter of this massive global, you know, major problem in the horn of Africa, this famine, and yet they seem to have very few supplies.

We talked to the Doctors. They couldn't test people for their blood type because they don't have the equipment. It's stunning. What are you seeing there, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's pretty similar, although in certain places it's getting a little bit better, Anderson. If it's tough to sort of draw generalizations of this large refugee camp. You know, you've been here. It's very big and there are different places that operate better than others.

But I will tell you that you know there are certain things that come into play with limited resources in a disaster situation like this. First of all, just basic triage, something that we have seen in hospitals all over the world trying to figure out who is the most critical and who is most likely to be saved and treating those patients first.

Also keep in mind that you know that sometimes when someone has come in very malnourish and very dehydrated, sort of giving fluids slowly and giving food slowly can actually be better. It can make it more likely the person will survive and also make your supplies last. But I think, as both of you have seen today, the key is to not let people get into this level of dire straits, trying to get resources, aid, food and water to people before they become this ill.

COOPER: It's also amazing when you talk to people it's not just one child who is there. It's you know you say do you have other children and they'll say I have three other children but it turns out two of them have already died or one of them have already died. It seems like so many people here have lost, have lost children.

ELBAGIR: And you know they put so much hope on that remaining child and they risk so much. And you know before you got here, a lot of people were speaking to us telling us these stories about you judge which child is sicker? Which child can you risk more? Which are you more likely to save?

COOPER: So, you have to choose at times between what sick child you think you can save?

ELBAGIR: Yes, especially when you take the risk of that journey. Some people don't have enough money to get driven up so they walk and they are carrying the children and sometimes some of those children have to be left behind to save the one that's the most savable.

COOPER: There's so much of this Sanjay that you are seeing, you're seeing the result of what's happening in Southern Somalia, in areas that are controlled still by Al-Shabaab, where they have stopped allowing inoculations. What kind of impact and stopped allowing aid workers in to dispute food? What kind of impact do you think you are seeing Sanjay from the fact that they are not allowing children to be inoculated for basic things like measles?

GUPTA: Well, I mean, it's, it's intolerable what we're seeing because I mean, as you know, that sort of clustered-like conditions. The overcrowding of these camps, if somewhere were to get one of these diseases that can be you know be inoculated against, measles for example or viral illnesses.

Unfortunately, measles can spread like wildfire quite literary through a camp. I mean 90 percent infectious contagious rate among people who are not vaccinated. So you take a completely preventable problem which, by the way, is additive to everything you've been talking about, and now you've made it that much worse. So you know getting vaccinations in here would be a huge boon toward reducing some of these preventable deaths.

COOPER: And have or they finally now getting aid directly into Mogadishu here?

ELBAGIR: No, I mean that's still part of the problem. It costs so much money to air lift aid in which is the quickest solution and that money just isn't there yet at the moment. And in that feeding center we went into today, when we were speaking to the administrator, he said that last month they saw 18,000 people and now with this Al- Shabaab withdrawal from Mogadishu, they're expecting to see 25,000.

So, it's now competition for what little resources there are and I just hope people are getting a sense of the desperation and the need. Aid just needs to get here as soon as it can.

COOPER: It's been extraordinary day Nima Elbagir. Thanks for all of your help and all your reporting over the last several weeks. Sanjay, we are going to talk to you again.

Coming up later on this hour, many of you have reached out to us over the past few days and on twitter asking how you can help the victims of the famine here, the kids here. You can find information online at CNN.com/impact.

Still ahead tonight, our big "360" interview, U2 front man, Humanitarian Bono joins us with his two-step plan to try to help and end the famine here in Africa and save a generation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO, CO-FOUNDER, ONE CAMPAIGN: This will define who we are. This is a defining moment for us. This is outrageous. This is just - it can't be happening. It must be stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Also, hip-hop artist K'Naan joins us as well.

And the riot in Great Britain, police now using any means necessary to restore calm. Too go too late for one anguish father. His efforts to save his own son a life cut short in last night's violence. That story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: In Great Britain tonight, Prime Minister David Cameron is giving police new orders to stop what he calls despicable violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, GREAT BRITAIN: Whatever resources the police need, they will get. Whatever tactics the police feel they need to employ, they will have legal backing to do so. We will do whatever is necessary to restore law and order onto our streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So far it seems to be working. There's an eerie calm after four days of violence and looting. Riots erupted in London on Saturday after a vigil for black man shot to death in an incident involving police. The violence quickly spread across the country. At least four people have been killed. More than 1,000 jailed so far.

Now among those killed, a 21 year old of Haroon Jahan of Birmingham, one of three men struck by a car early this morning while trying to protect their neighborhood. Harold's father was near the scene and ran over to help not knowing it was his son who was one of the victims. Imagine that. His reaction to that discovery is simply heartbreaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPE)

TARIK JAHAN, SON KILLED IN RIOTS: Somebody from behind told me that my son was lying behind me. So I started CPR on my own son. My face was covered in blood. My hands were covered in blood. Why? Why?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Meanwhile in Manchester, look at this video we found on you tube that was shot last night.

Officers chasing down a group of rioters. Kids on bikes by the looks of it and when they actually catch them, one officer appears to kick one of them in the head and beat him five times with a baton.

Confronted with the footage today, Manchester police acknowledge the beating saying "police officers responding to incidents last night in Salford and Manchester were faced with extraordinary and unprecedented levels of violence used against them as circumstances surrounding the footage of this particular incident are currently unknown. It is inappropriate for GMP, the Greater Manchester Police, to comment further."

CNN's Dan River is in Birmingham, England, and tonight he joins us now with the latest.

So Dan, what's happening tonight?

DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, the scene here is one of calm. Sorry, Anderson. Yes, the scene here is one of calm thankfully after four days of the most terrible looting and violence.

You can see behind me the police are out in force across the city tonight. They are checking any vehicles that go anywhere near the town center and anyone that's looking like they could pose any kind of a challenge or problem. They are taking them out and searching them and if they feel necessary, they are arresting them.

There have been quite a lot of heightened tensions in one predominantly Asian area where those three young Pakistani British men were mowed down by a car. But thankfully so far the lid has been kept on those interracial intentions and so far things seem to be calm. The police operation seems to be working.

COOPER: I also saw a video of people trying to clean up after the rioters. What kind of an impact has this had in England? I mean, what's the - is there an overwhelming public perception about this? What are people saying?

RIVERS: Yes, there's a massive public backlash against this looting and against this violence that's been borne out in radio shows and newspapers and on twitter and facebook. I think, to start with, people were just stunned that police seemed to have completely lost control of the situation and that the situation spread so virally through London and in through other cities like here in Birmingham.

But then yesterday the police really regained control. They were more robust in how they were dealing with looters. They were cracking down very hard. Zero tolerance for any kind of trouble making, and I think there's a huge collective sigh of relief. The communities, as well, right across Britain have come out themselves to protect businesses, to stop shops being smashed. We've seen that this evening here in Birmingham and in the Asian community. Hundreds of young men out protecting their businesses and they're saying they have absolutely no trouble with the looters.

COOPER: Yes, we will continue following it. Dan, appreciate the reporting.

Isha Sesay is following some other stories for us tonight. She joins us with the "360 bulletin." Isha.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENTS: Anderson, new reports of violence across Syria. This video reportedly shows the aftermath in (inaudible) where security forces allegedly attack a mosque. Heavy gunfire and tanks were reported in the city.

Meantime a group that documents protests said, more than 2400 people have died since the crackdown began. Today the U.S. stepped up its response imposing sanctions on Syria's largest cell phone company and a bank. The U.S. military says an air strike killed Taliban fighters responsible for last weekend's deadly helicopter crash in Afghanistan. 30 U.S. troops and 8 Afghans died when the chopper was shot down. Defense officials now say 17 were Navy S.E.A.L.S, not 22 as first reported.

A manhunt for three Florida siblings ended in Colorado after a high- speed car chase. The suspects, all in their 20s, shot at police before crashing. Wanted for crimes in two states they have been on the run since last week. Their pictures were plastered on digital billboards from Florida to Texas.

Rupert Murdoch's and battle media empire news corp., beat expectations in the fourth quarter despite being rocked by phone allegations. Excluding one time cost, net earnings were $982 million, or 35 cents per share. Revenue also came in higher than expected nearly $9 billion on a conference call with investors. Murdoch said he would stay on as CEO and chairman of news corp. that's related. Now, back to Anderson and more issues in Somalia

COOPER: Children behind the staggering number, 30,000 Somali kids have died in the last three months, each one had a family. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports from Kenya where the tiny graves are multiplying every day.

Plus with my interview with Bono, his anger, his outrage over the catastrophe that was predictable and preventable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO: It is shocking. It is disgusting. And I've seen those faces myself up close. I've seen that loss of life. It's hard to believe that this is the 21st century.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: This is what they call an IDP camp, an Internally Displaced Person's Camp. They are not refugees. Refugees are people that leave Somalia to go to another country to seek help. Internally displaced people are people, Somalis who haven't left the country but they left home villages in search of food and in search of safety. Many of them have left from areas controlled by Al-Shabaab. There are probably about 100 or so huts in this camp. They've been given plastic tarps that they can use for the outer layer of the hut to protect from the elements, the sun and just the occasional rain. But conditions here are pretty bad.

More than 100,000 internally displaced people have come in the last few weeks and months, and many more are still expected. Many of them come with children who are sick, who are badly malnourished but they often don't take them to a hospital until it's too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: As we keep mentioning, the United Nations says that 600,000 Somali kids are on the brink of starvation. It's a number frankly we can't repeat enough, 600,000 kids at risk of dying. It's the reason we're here.

Parents are watching their kids die every single day, every few hours. These deaths could have been preventable. Supermodel imam said last night in this program, an entire generation of Somalis could be lost in her home country. She tweeted actually that she was born in the (Inaudible) hospital that we were broadcasting about today where the needs are so great.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in (Indab) Kenya along the Somali border and what is the world's largest refugee camp where malnutrition is colliding with disease. Take a look. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voices-over): The kids here will melt your heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE CHILD: How old are you?

GUPTA: Wow, how old am I? I'm 41.

They impressed me with their English. So, I spoke a little Somali to them and they loved it.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GUPTA: Is that good?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE CHILD: Yes.

GUPTA: Rare smiles in a place too full of heartbreak.

(Amin) and her one month old daughter (Addison) came here in search for a better life, fighting so hard not to starve to death. But in the end, it made little difference. (Amin) lost the one thing in the world she cared about more than anything else. We are walking to her daughter's grave.

They are really just piles of dirt with no name plate no flower no reminders of their lives, just small sticks with colored plastic trash blowing in the wind.

She says she's brought her healthy baby girl here with dreams of new beginnings. But Addison died within a month.

What went wrong?

She started vomiting, she said, and then diarrhea and it wouldn't stop to days and days. Diarrheal illness has been a major reason 30,000 kids have died here over the past three months. So many tiny graves like this one.

Part of the problem is even after you get to one of these camps, there's still not enough food here. Not enough water. And there are plenty of infectious diseases. There are viral illnesses. There is also diphtheria, there are Pertussis and I want to show you something else. Something that's very frightening in a camp like this.

This is Osmond. He's 14 years old. And you can tell he really doesn't feel well. People are concerned here that he has measles. He had a high fever. He had the characteristic rash. He has conjunctivitis in his eyes. He never got vaccinated. He never got any sort of treatment. And measles as you know is very, very contagious. He has nowhere else to go.

And so hundreds of thousands more of these adorable children unvaccinated are at risk of the same fate as Amin's daughter.

Is there anything anybody can do?

AMIN (through translator): It is with god.

GUPTA: It is with god. And so there's nothing else these kids can do but laugh and play surrounded by the dead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: You have to remember so many kids haven't been vaccinated and haven't been inoculated in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab is actually stopped allowing aid groups from vaccinating, saying that these aid group are trying to kill Somali kids and it's a western plot.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now from Dadab as well as CNN's Correspondent David McKenzie joins me now as well.

Sanjay, the international aid groups are working hard to try to stem disease outbreaks at the camps through vaccine programs and early warning systems. Are they having an impact?

GUPTA: Well, you know it's very hard to paint with one broad brush you know the entire impact. I think there are certain enclaves where there's more impact than others. The area that you just saw there in that piece, Anderson, there were several kids who likely had measles at one time or another. They had the rash, it mad maybe gone away, but still had fever, they weren't feeling well but they hadn't seen a doctor, in part because they were too ill to go to the health center and there weren't doctors going around seeing the patients, so it's a logistical problem.

Also with regard to vaccinations, that's even more complicated than you might imagine. Children under the age of five are getting vaccines or even at the time of checking in or registration, but children over five, for various reasons, the aid organizations have told us this, aren't always getting their vaccines. So a lot of the kids you saw playing, running around, unvaccinated. They are at real risk. If you have one child with measles or infectious disease, they can all become infected pretty quickly.

COOPER: David, you've been reporting on this for weeks for this story. Have you personally - I mean have you been seeing it get worse and worse? Have you seen the change?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Anderson, it's partly things staying the same and things changing. First time I came here was 2006. I actually came here to cover a flood. Now it's a drought and it's actually a cycle of droughts. And what I've seen is that people are coming into these outskirts of the camp and, as Sanjay reported there, they are not in a good situation. There's measles and other issues and just the elements here.

You know we found ourselves coughing later in the day because there's wind that I want to show you video, Anderson, this wind that blasts through this camp with dust and dirt. It's a wind that is absolutely terrible. It gets into people's lungs and you see adults and children coughing and lying in their tents, often with sweat. And you know they are getting help. They are getting out of Somalia where they are fleeing conflict and Al-Shabaab, and they get here and often the situation is not much better. It's really tragic.

COOPER: Yes, it certainly is. David, appreciate the reporting tonight, Sanjay, as well.

Programming now, you can see more on Sanjay's reporting from Dadab on a special edition of SANJAY GUPTA M.D. this weekend on the front lines of a famine Saturday and Sunday 7:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Up next, my interview with U2 front man and humanitarian Bono and his thoughts on the crisis and who is to blame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BONO: You can blame droughts on God but famines are man-made. We know exactly what to do and this shouldn't be happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. We're coming to you live now from Mogadishu.

You know so many people have been sounding the alarm about what is happening here. And they've been sounding the alarm for a month. This was - this was - this was preventable. This was predictable. It was predicted in fact. They've known about the drought for a long time. They've known about the danger of famine here. The war here, the conflict has certainly contributed to it but there's so much that needs to be done right now.

For weeks now U2 front man Bono has been sounding the alarm. About the famine here and now we can stop it we can do something about it. Lives can be saved. Kids are going to die, there's no doubt about it, in the next or two or the coming weeks but it's a question of how many kids are going to die and we can make a big impact on that.

Bono has teamed up with a Somali born hip-hop artist named K'naan to urge the world to take action. I spoke with Bono and K'naan earlier tonight. It's tonight's big 360 interview. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Bono, I was at a hospital today in Mogadishu and I mean there are kids dying, you know tens of thousands of children have already died in the last few weeks, last few months many more are likely to die unless more aid and more money gets in the pipeline. They need $2 billion. I think they have only had $1 billion actually sent so there's a big shortfall.

And at this hospital which is in Mogadishu, it's a major hospital, a big children's ward, they hardly had any medicine. They hardly had the equipment and supplies they need to treat these children. It's stunning when you see that up close, the results of what happens when there isn't the attention and there isn't the aid.

BONO: It is shocking. It is disgusting. And I have seen those faces myself up close. I've seen that loss of life. And I saw Sanjay's report earlier today from the hospital where he explained that the world food program will run out of food in three weeks.

It's hard to believe that this is the 21st century and you know we must not let the complexity of the situation absolve us from responsibility to act. That's really the message. That's why we're so pleased that you're there and CNN are there. You to make this a priority.

You see in the security council people staying late at night as they should to discuss what's going on in Libya and Syria and the like because hundreds and indeed thousands of lives are being lost there. Here there's 12 million people over three countries. (Air Atrea) probably makes the fourth. This is a huge strategic import for us in the whole horn of Africa and we need to make this a priority.

COOPER: You know K'naan, I think there and I heard on twitter from a lot of folks you know their images of Somalia I think was born in '91 and '92 the famine then and what happened with "Operation Restore Hope" and when the humanitarian effort ended up getting bogged down in a hunt for a Somali warlord and U.S. troops were killed. There are a lot of people I think who kind a feel like you know what we tried to help Somalia 20 years ago, why now if they're in the same situation, why should people donate money? What do you say to people about this place and about the people here and about the need for aid here?

K'NANN, SOMALIA BORN SINGER: I think that you're right because of the images of the past, because of the famines of old, because of Blackhawk down and the negative stories of piracy that's come out of Somalia. I think people have created a psychological fence around their hearts where Somalia is concerned. We have to find a way to get past that. And look at the humanity of what's happening and help people who are in need of our help at this moment. We are not usually the sort of people who take the victim's seat. We are people who stand up for ourselves. It's very, very dire, dire situation.

COOPER: I guess for me the thing, Bono that I keep thinking about is you hear half a million children are on the brink of starvation. You hear 600,000 children on the at risk of starvation. And those numbers you know they are so big they almost don't seem real and we start to think, this is just a normal thing. But I mean I feel like that should be the headline in every paper and every newscast every day while this is going on, 600,000 children at risk of starvation, on the brink of starvation is a catastrophe.

BONO: Look, 30,000 of them have died in the last few months. And it's true, you know, people seem to prefer watching people in the high streets of London fight policemen rather than watching children of Somalia fighting for their lives. People watch the values, stock values crumble while you know I think about our own sense of values tumbling because this will define who we are.

This is a defining moment for us and there's lots to distract us and there are serious issues. People's livelihoods that you know not to dismiss the hardships that are happening in the western world, but this is outrageous. This is outrageous. This is just it can't be happening. It must be stopped. It's not our intentions, it's our actions. It's not the possibilities of the United Nations or the AU it's our priorities that define us. This is a defining moment, Anderson.

COOPER: Bono, thank you so much for being with us, and K'naan as well. I know you hope to go to the refugee camp. I hope you make it there. Thanks for all your efforts.

K'NAAN: Absolutely.

BONO: And Thank you. We wish you safety there and all of the crew. We really appreciate your work, Anderson. Thanks, once again. And Thank you, K'naan for your leadership. We appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: A full interview with Bono and K'naan is about ten minutes long. We couldn't play it all but go to ac360.com to watch the full interview.

I really urge you to because there a lot about not just addressing the short-term humanitarian crisis is happening right now but also about addressing the long-term needs and how to make sure this thing doesn't happen in the future because there are programs, agriculture programs that are being backed in Kenya right now and Ethiopia that are actually working. Or mitigating effects of the drought.

But you don't see that in Somalia. We, Bono talks a lot about that. Go to ac360.com to check that out. We'll be right back. We have more ahead in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Thanks very much for watching our coverage from Somalia. If you want to do something to help, and I'm not going to tell you how to spend your money, but if you are interested in helping the people here in Somalia, go to CNN.com/impact for a list of organizations that are doing good work in Somalia and all over the horn of Africa. JOHN KING USA starts in a moment.