Severe malnutrition surges as facilities close

Somalia is in the grip of a deepening humanitarian emergency, with the United Nations warning of a sharp rise in child malnutrition as health and nutrition facilities shut down across the country. In the first half of 2026, agencies report a 32 percent increase in the number of children admitted to stabilization centres with severe acute malnutrition and complications, compared with the same period last year.

The closures are extensive. UNICEF says more than 200 health and nutrition facilities have already been shuttered due to what it describes as unprecedented cuts in humanitarian aid. The AllAfrica reporting, drawing on a Geneva press briefing by UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, put the figure at 205. The agency warns that, under the most severe funding scenarios, as many as 618 facilities could close nationwide.

The consequences have been immediate. Children who once had access to preventive and community-based nutrition services have lost that safety net. UNICEF attributes the rise in admissions not to more children falling sick but to a reduction in earlier interventions. Elder cautioned: "Fewer facilities mean longer journeys for mums and their babies; longer journeys mean later treatment; later treatment means more severe illness and a greater risk of preventable death."

This year, nearly 1.9 million children are projected to be affected by malnutrition in Somalia, including almost half a million who will suffer from the severe acute form. Nearly one million children under five, adolescent girls and women risk losing access to nutrition services entirely, according to UNICEF.

A country under multiple pressures

Somalia's current hunger crisis sits on top of decades of instability. Years of poor rainfall and severe drought have destroyed crops, killed livestock and dried up water sources, forcing families from their homes. More than 200,000 people were reported displaced during the second quarter of 2026 alone, and aid groups estimated that drought displaced around half a million people between January and April, adding to an estimated 3.3 million people already uprooted.

At a displacement camp in Baidoa, in the south-west, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) describes conditions that are nothing short of critical. According to MSF, one in two children in the camps is suffering from acute malnutrition, and one in four is severely affected. One third of families are surviving on a single meal a day. Anecdotes of entire families exhausting their survival options are common, as the World Food Programme put it: "those are not abstract figures—they are families exhausting every excuse they had to survive."

Conflict adds to the strain. Somalia also faces an insurgency by the al-Shabaab group, and rising fuel and fertiliser prices resulting from the conflict in the Middle East and, according to some accounts, the US-Iran war, which have pushed up the cost of food and water. Water prices have quadrupled in rural and pastoral regions; UNICEF reports a 200-litre barrel now costs around US$8 instead of US$2.

Funding cuts, political exclusions, and the risk of more suffering

These pressures are colliding rapidly with a sharp retreat in donor support. United States support has dropped, as have contributions from several other Western governments. Funding for treating acute malnutrition in parts of Somalia has dropped by more than 80 percent this year according to MSF. But one funding rollback is especially visible: Somalia was excluded from the US' $2 billion global humanitarian aid pledge this year amid allegations of aid diversion and corruption—a claim that AFL reports a single outlet carried. The effect, agencies say, has been the closure of clinics and a reduction in life-saving services.

The impact is being felt beyond the health centre. UNICEF documents: a 30 percent reduction in health and nutrition service coverage; a 40 percent cut to the UNHAS humanitarian air service budget; WHO expects more than 78,000 pupils have dropped out, with another 660,000 at school at risk; at least 65 child protection service points have closed; and eye-watering numbers: more than 1.6 million people need safe water, while over 800,000 risk losing hygiene supplies.

Aid agencies acknowledge the United Nations has had past successes in Somalia: support costs for more than 2.25 million children with severe acute malnutrition between 2021 and 2025 achieved children's survive rate of 97.6 percent; the UN-supported cholera vaccination drives reached more than 885,000 people; UNICEF has trained more than 160 children formerly recruited by armed groups. But this progress is now in peril.

"We have the programmes. We have the partners. What is missing is the funding," said James Elder. "It is a brutal contradiction: the resources to protect vulnerable children are being cut at precisely the moment when the pressures pushing Somalia's children into crisis are intensifying."

Aid cuts could be a 'decision to pay more later'

Humanitarian agencies are starting to draw a direct line between reduced funding and the worsening crisis. "This is the wrong moment to retreat," Elder warned, as Somalia also prepares for the likely arrival of a stronger-than-ever El Niño, forecast to bring severe flooding in the coming months.

UNICEF's message is blunt: "Protecting children is not a discretionary expense. Preventing suffering is not an inefficiency. And dismantling effective aid at the moment of greatest need is not a saving—it is a decision to pay more later.

The World Food Programme's grim statement echoes that sentiment: "These are not abstract statistics: these are families exhausting every option they have left to survive."

Perspectives

  • Humanitarian agencies (UNICEF, WFP, MSF): These agencies stress that the crisis is man-made and that funding is the missing ingredient. They fear that cutbacks are bringing the entire response to its knees, after years of building up effective interventions.
  • Somalia's government: According to UNICEF, the Somali government is strengthening policies, regulation and national systems in response, implying its also working to address the crisis from its end.
  • Mogadishu’s displaced families: Personal anecdotes, such as the story of Hajio, who fled her drought-stricken home and received only clothes and tomatoes from a nearby community, illustrate the point for individuals: families are falling through each and every gap.

The story of this crisis, and the choices being made, is still being written.