The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Story: “Somalia child hunger - UNICEF” – Friday 21 August 2026
Speaker:
- James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson (from Nairobi)
TRT: 02’53”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 21 August 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “In Somalia today, aid cuts are closing the doors to health care, they're shutting down nutrition centres, and they're pushing water protection and education further and further from those who need it. As ever, children are paying the price. So, on the back of unprecedented cuts in humanitarian aid, 205 nutrition facilities have already closed.”
- Medium shot: journalists taking notes in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “Fewer facilities mean longer journeys for mums and babies. Longer journeys mean later treatment. Later treatment means more severe illness and greater risk of preventable death.”
- Close shot: journalist taking notes in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “This is the wrong moment to retreat. Somalia is confronting a worsening climate crisis, severe droughts in parts of the north, conflict, displacement, all on the back of a war in Iran and rising costs for fuel and fertilizer. And, of course, a record strength El Niño threatens to compound Somalia's ongoing humanitarian crisis with severe flooding forecasted to come in the coming months.”
- Medium shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “Funding cuts have contributed to a 30 per cent reduction in health and nutrition coverage and the potential scale for further disruption is enormous. Under these severe funding scenarios that we are living out, as many as 618 health facilities could close nationwide.”
- Lateral medium shot of the screens in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “Nearly 1.2 million children are projected to suffer from malnutrition this year, including half a million -say it slowly- 500,000 girls and boys with severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form.”
- Large shot of the press conference room.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson: “Protecting children is not a discretionary expense. Preventing suffering is not an inefficiency and dismantling effective aid at the moment of greatest need, it is not a saving. It's a decision to pay more later in money, in security, in lost development, and increasingly in child's lives.”
- Somalia B-Rolls: Balow Internally Displaced Camp – shot on 17-18 August 2026
Medium shot of woman at camp. Medium shot of woman preparing a fire to cook. CREDIT ON-SCREEN UNICEF
15. Somalia B-Rolls: Mothers and children at Burhakaba District Hospital, Stabilization Centre – shot on 17-18 August 2026
CREDIT ON-SCREEN UNICEF
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