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Photo: Somalis languish at Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya

A Somali woman and her children walk toward the outskirts of the Dagahaley camp, part of the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. Dadaab's camps house more than 356,000 refugees.

A Somali woman and her children walk toward the outskirts of the Dagahaley camp, part of the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya. Dadaab’s camps house more than 356,000 refugees.  (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

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What started as a few tents clustered on a bone-dry stretch of Kenyan desert has grown into the largest refugee complex in the world.

Somali refugees at Dadaab

Women venture to the outskirts of the camps at Dadaab, Kenya, to forage for firewood and return weighted down by the bundles lashed to their backs.   (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times)

New arrivals at Dadaab

Newly arrived refugees in Kenya, mostly Somalis, wait to be admitted into Dadaab’s five camps.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Somali refugees at Dadaab

Refugees, most of them ethnic Somalis, live in five camps spread over 20 square miles near Dadaab, Kenya.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Somali refugee in Kenya

Refugee Noor Hassan Shanglo, 65, came to Dadaab after civil war erupted in his native Somalia in 1991. A former sailor, he has not seen the ocean in 22 years. At night, he dreams of the sea.  (Kate Linthicum / Los Angeles Times)

Somali refugees at Dadaab

Schoolgirls at Dadaab’s camps perform the Somali national anthem on World Refugee Day, which is observed each year by UNHCR to raise awareness about the plight of refugees.   (Kate Linthicum / Los Angeles Times)

Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya

In some ways, the Dadaab refugee complex resembles any other town, with schools, mosques, cemeteries and rows of mud plaster homes. The refugees have their own system of governance, complete with elections.   (Tony Karumba / AFP/Getty Images)

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