Slow response to East African famine costs lives Conditions in Somalia are getting worse not better. Thousands are heading for already overcrowded and under supplied camps in Mogadishu. By NBC News and msnbc.com Thousands of people needlessly died from famine in East Africa last year because the rich nations failed to act on early warnings, two leading British aid organizations reported Wednesday. The report from Oxfam and Save the Children said a "culture of risk aversion" by humanitarian agencies and national governments caused a sixth month delay in large-scale aid effort. The groups said many donors wanted proof of a humanitarian catastrophe before acting to prevent one. ITN's Rohit Kachroo saw firsthand the results of too little action. Kachroo reports from Mogadishu, Somalia, where "battlefields are disappearing only to reclaimed by a more deadly war against hunger. In the city, every patch of space is a new home for the thousands outside it.