The drought-stricken country has recorded a 32 percent jump in the number of children treated for severe malnutrition.
Published On 22 Aug 2026
Life-threatening malnutrition among children is surging in Somalia as more than 200 health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close following cuts to international aid, the United Nations has warned.
The East African nation recorded a 32 percent increase in the number of children admitted to facilities with severe acute malnutrition and complications during the first half of 2026, UNICEF said on Friday.
Nearly 1.9 million children are projected to face malnutrition this year.
“In Somalia today, aid cuts are closing doors to healthcare, shutting down nutrition services, and pushing water, education, and protection further out of reach,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva, speaking via video from Nairobi.
Under severe funding scenarios, as many as 618 health facilities could close nationwide, Elder warned. “This is the wrong moment to retreat.”
Somalia is facing a severe drought that has decimated livestock, ruined harvests, and destroyed livelihoods. Aid groups estimate that the drought has displaced approximately 500,000 people between January and April, adding to the roughly 3.3 million Somalis already uprooted.
One-third of Somalia’s population of 19 million people is facing severe food shortages.
Compounding the crisis, funding for addressing acute malnutrition in parts of Somalia has dropped by more than 80 percent this year, according to Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, as the United States and several other Western countries slashed aid.
Somalia was also excluded from the $2 billion global humanitarian aid pledge announced by the US this year due to allegations of aid diversion and corruption.
The funding cuts have compounded the effects of the ongoing drought, severely curtailing access to water even as prices in rural and pastoral areas have quadrupled, according to UNICEF.
At the same time, fuel and fertilizer costs have risen due to the US-Israel conflict in Iran, while a record-strength El Niño climate pattern is forecast to worsen the humanitarian crisis with severe flooding, Elder said.
Nearly a million children under five, adolescent girls, and women risk losing access to nutrition services.
