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Somalia: child hunger surges as humanitarian aid dries up – UNICEF

The global funding crisis for vital lifesaving work is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where hundreds of health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.

“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,” said James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, to journalists in Geneva.

Speaking from Nairobi after visiting Baidoa and Burhakaba regions, northwest of Mogadishu, Mr. Elder highlighted how 205 nutrition facilities have already closed amid unprecedented cuts in funding humanitarian aid, further limiting access to essential services and care for children facing hunger and malnutrition. “As ever, children are paying the price,” he said.

In the first six months of this year, compared to the same time last year, Somalia has seen a 32 per cent increase in children being admitted to stabilisation centres with severe acute malnutrition and complications.

“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,” warned Mr. Elder.

Drought and displacement are worsening malnutrition

Consecutive failed rains and worsening drought have ruined crops and livestock, depriving hundreds of thousands of people across the country of food and water. More than half a million people were displaced in the first three months of 2026, with drought accounting for nine out of every 10 displacements. Alarmingly, 85 per cent of those displaced are women and children, who are also among the most severely affected by malnutrition.

“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,” the UNICEF official warned. The record strength of El Niño threatens to compound Somalia's ongoing humanitarian crisis with severe flooding forecast in the coming months.

“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,” he added.

According to the UN World Food Programme, approximately six million people in Somalia face acute food insecurity. Nearly 500,000 children under the age of five urgently need treatment for acute malnutrition.

“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,” Mr. Elder stressed.

During the drought of 2022, UNICEF’s support helped 130,000 girls and boys to stay in school, a key boost to child protection in a country that has one of the world’s highest rates of reported violations against youngsters. In 2024 and 2025, thousands of children formerly associated with armed groups, or at risk of recruitment, received reintegration support through child protection service points.

In today’s interconnected world, cuts to humanitarian aid risk undermining not only lives and livelihoods but also security and economic stability beyond Somalia according to UNICEF’s spokesperson.

“Dismantling effective aid at this 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,” said Mr. Elder.

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Somalia child hunger - UNICEF

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