5 facts to know about the humanitarian crisis in Somalia
As geopolitical conflicts over Somalia’s strategic location and maritime corridors intensify, a humanitarian crisis is quietly worsening within the country at an alarming rate.
While global security and economic interests collide in their country, millions of Somalis are living a completely different reality: prolonged drought, food insecurity and the collapse of basic healthcare. What makes this crisis even more severe today is the sharp decline in international aid funding, right when the need is more urgent than ever. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been continuously responding to Somalia’s most pressing needs for a decade, but no single organization can fill these massive gaps alone. Here are five essential facts to understand what is happening in Somalia.
1. Drought is destroying livelihoods and forcing families to flee
Consecutive failed rainy seasons and rising temperatures — particularly in Puntland and South West states — have dried up wells and pastures, causing water prices to skyrocket.
Families are now forced to rely on trucked water at unaffordable costs. Meanwhile, massive livestock deaths and plummeting agricultural production have devastated people’s primary sources of income.
Faced with this reality, thousands of families have had to abandon their homes. They are heading toward overcrowded camps around cities like Baidoa and the wider Mudug region in desperate search of water, food and healthcare.
2. Millions face acute food insecurity
In 2024, MSF teams treated 18,066 children for severe acute malnutrition across our projects in Somalia — a significant jump from the previous year.
After four back-to-back failed rainy seasons, the UN estimated that 4.4 million people faced critical levels of food insecurity in 2025. This included 1.85 million children under five at risk of acute malnutrition, and 421,000 children suffering from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.
Simultaneously, more than 3.3 million people have been displaced, severely straining limited resources and basic services in host communities.
3. A collapse in humanitarian funding is driving the disaster
The crisis in Somalia isn’t just driven by climate or conflict; it is being catastrophically compounded by a collapse in humanitarian funding. The current response plan, designed to save millions of lives, has received only 20 per cent of its required funding. Out of the $1.42 billion needed, only $288 million has materialized.
Because of this massive shortfall, the plan was slashed by 75 per cent, cutting the number of aid recipients from six million down to just 1.3 million. This isn’t because the needs have decreased — it’s because international support has dried up. For millions of Somalis, this simply means they are completely cut off from any humanitarian aid.
4. Health and nutrition services are on the brink of collapse
As funding dwindles, health facilities are shutting their doors one after another. Since early 2025, more than 200 health and nutrition centres have closed nationwide, directly impacting over 1.7 million people. The number of malnutrition treatment centres fell from 775 to 629 in just six months. The crisis is further aggravated by disrupted supply chains, causing months-long shortages of critical supplies like therapeutic milk for severely malnourished children.
As a result, clinics lack the bare essentials and children are waiting for treatments that may not arrive in time. Meanwhile, preventable diseases like measles, diphtheria and acute watery diarrhea have surged due to the breakdown of basic immunization and nutrition services.
5. MSF’s role: A lifesaving response struggling to bridge the gap
Against this backdrop, MSF continues to provide critical care in areas like Baidoa and the Mudug region, supporting hospitals, running malnutrition treatment centres, providing emergency services and organizing mobile clinics to reach remote communities.
However, the needs are rapidly outpacing capacity. MSF teams have recorded:
- A drastic shift toward severity, with inpatient treatments surging by 146 per cent, while total admissions remained stable.
- A 32 per cent rise in deaths among children under five suffering from acute malnutrition in MSF-supported facilities.
Tragically, nearly half of these children die within the first two days of arriving at a clinic, often after exhausting, days-long journeys in search of care.
Allara Ali, MSF project coordinator in Somalia, explains the reality: “We see children arriving at our hospitals in critical condition, often after journeys lasting days without food or water. The drought hasn’t just dried up wells; it has eroded the entire support network families rely on. Our teams are working around the clock to treat severe malnutrition and outbreaks of measles and diphtheria but the sheer scale of the needs is pushing our capacity to the breaking point. People are exhausted and without immediate access to water and healthcare, more lives will be lost to entirely preventable causes.”
Between Dec. 13, 2025 and Jan. 31, 2026, MSF distributed a total of 12,410,000 litres of safe drinking water yet people’s needs remain far greater than the current response.
Not an inevitable tragedy
While drought and conflict fuel the crisis, it is the sharp decline in funding that has turned the situation in Somalia into a deadly disaster. The crisis in Somalia continues because the world has chosen to look away.
