Somalia Crisis

Somalia Map
Source: OCHA/ReliefWeb

The country

Somalia is a country in Eastern Africa, located on the Horn of Africa. Its national capital is Mogadishu. The country shares land borders with Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya and is bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Somalia covers a land area of 637,657 square kilometers. As of 2025, the country had an estimated population of around 19.3 million people. Somalia is regarded as one of the most fragile and least developed states in the world.

The humanitarian situation

Somalis face one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The crisis is driven by conflict, displacement, food insecurity, political instability, climatic shocks, poverty and economic decline. A devastating drought in the country that began in 2020 reached unprecedented levels in 2022. Five consecutive rainy seasons had failed, the longest and most severe drought in Somalia's recent history. While humanitarian needs in Somalia remain high, improved access to water and pasture in 2023 and 2024 mitigated the effects of the severe and prolonged historic drought. However, a new drought is looming in 2025.

The United Nations warns that several areas of Somalia are at risk of drought due to prolonged extreme dry conditions, following the poor rains of the October-December 2024 Deyr season. Experts predicts that the April-June 2025 Gu seasonal rains will be below normal in most parts of Somalia, while above-average temperatures will increase.

The 2020-2023 drought came to an end in the second quarter of last year. Since then, the drought has given way to rainfall and flash floods. In 2023, Somalia was hit by unprecedented heavy rains and flooding, and new displacement. Before the start of the Deyr rainy season, more than 475,000 people had been displaced from their villages by these floods. Although the rains have brought some relief, it will be years before the historic drought is overcome. 

Torrential rains in the 2023 Deyr rainy season (October to December), due in part to the El Niño phenomenon, caused flash floods and massive flooding, affecting some 2.5 million people. More than 1.2 million men, women and children were displaced from their homes. The heavy flooding caused by the Deyr rainy season was the worst witnessed in decades.

While rains in 2023 and 2024 alleviated drought conditions in Somalia, communities across the country are still recovering from its impact. In addition, heavy rains and associated flooding have displaced households, destroyed critical infrastructure, contributed to the loss of livelihoods, and increased the spread of disease.

Heavy rains, subsequent flash floods and riverine flooding across Somalia during the country's 2024 April-June Gu rainy season caused casualties, displaced more than 80,000 people, and adversely affected some 268,000 people. Last year's rains have been milder than last year's, reducing the risk of flooding. However, communities are still facing the lingering effects of past shocks, and forecasts predict continued dry conditions with below-average rainfall for the coming season.

Ongoing conflict, escalating clan violence, and recurrent climatic shocks have led to widespread displacement in Somalia. As of February 2025, an estimated 4.4 million Somalis remain displaced. While about 3.5 million people are internally displaced within Somalia, more than 900,000 Somalis have sought refuge in neighboring countries due to climatic shocks and armed conflict, mostly in Kenya (455,000) and Ethiopia (360,000). More than 80 percent of the displaced are women and children. 

More than 500,000 people were newly internally displaced in 2024. Last year, conflict was the main driver of new internal displacement, as inter-clan fighting surged in several regions. Most people forced to flee their homes remained within the same region.

In 2023, conflict, severe drought and devastating floods had forced more than 2.9 million people in Somalia to flee their homes  â€“ a record rate of displacement for the country, with many families displaced more than once. In 2022, about 1.8 million people in Somalia had been forced to flee from their homes, including 1.2 million due to severe drought and 600,000 people due to conflict and violence.  

The latest analysis of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) shows that nearly 3.4 million people face high levels of acute food insecurity between January and March 2025. Of these, 442,000 people are at emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4) and 2.9 million people are at crisis levels (IPC Phase 3).

However, millions of Somalis are at risk of increased food insecurity in the coming months. Without sustained humanitarian assistance, the number of people facing hunger is likely to rise again.  Between April and June 2025, below-average rainfall, high food prices, conflict and further flooding could push 4.4 million people into IPC Phase 3 or worse.

An estimated 1.7 million children under five in Somalia are estimated to be acutely malnourished in 2025, including 466,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 1.2 million cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). Between April and June 2025, malnutrition is likely to worsen due to disease outbreaks and reduced access to food.

Somalia is also plagued by disease. A cholera outbreak is spreading in several areas, with more than 18,000 cases reported in 2023. Since the beginning of 2024, 14,389 new cholera cases with 122 deaths have been recorded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) as of June 30, 2024. The Gu rains triggered outbreaks in areas where cholera has not been detected for several years, as communities in affected areas experienced inadequate access to safe water and poor sanitation amid the flooding.

In 2025, an estimated one-third of the population - about 6 million people - are expected to require humanitarian assistance, while 9.1 million Somalis out of a population of 19.3 million are affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The 2025 US$1.42 billion humanitarian appeal for Somalia, which aims to provide critical assistance to nearly 4.6 million of the most vulnerable people, is only 12 percent funded, with less than US$177 million received, as of February 2025.

Around 6.9 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in 2024, a significant decrease - 16 percent - compared to 2023. In 2023, 8.25 million people, almost half of the population, were relying on humanitarian assistance and protection. Among the people in need of aid were 4.9 million children.

The impact of the 2020-2023 drought and widespread insecurity were driving Somalia to the brink of famine. The drought had devastated the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable and marginalized people. Significant efforts in scaling up humanitarian assistance and more favorable rains than predicted led to a moderate improvement in food security. 

A study has found that 71,000 excess deaths may have occurred as a result of severe drought between January 2022 and June 2024, with around 40 percent of the lives lost being children under the age of five. The research was commissioned by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London and Somalia's SIMAD University.

Humanitarian operations in Somalia remain severely underfunded. When funding is scarce, aid agencies are having to prioritize the most vulnerable in areas with the greatest severity of needs. 

The 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) for Somalia sought US$1.6 billion to help 5.2 million of the 6.9 million people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance and protection last year.  As of February 2025, the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for Somalia was only 48 percent met by funding. Due to a lack of funds, aid organizations were only able to reach 2.3 million of the 5.2 million people they were targeting.

Although the number of people in need has decreased steadily since 2023, the percentage of people targeted has also decreased from 92 percent in 2023 to 75 percent in 2024 and 2025 due to anticipated underfunding. Due to a shortage of funds and pressure from donor countries, aid agencies are implementing a more targeted response this year, with a focus on assisting women, men and children in 'extreme' and 'catastrophic' need, meaning that the severe needs of millions of others will remain unmet.

The Humanitarian Response Plan for 2023 called for US$2.6 billion to meet the critical needs of 7.6 million people in 2023. Yet, as of January 2024, aid agencies had received only 40 percent of the resources required to deliver much-needed assistance. In 2002, the UN had appealed for US$2.27 billion in funding for the Somalia crisis. As of December 2022, only $1.29 billion had been received from donors (57 percent coverage), a shortfall of nearly $1 billion.

 

Somalia Location

The security situation

Insecurity persists in Somalia, with attacks by extremist group Al-Shabab (AS) and clan violence taking a heavy toll on civilians.

Widespread violence and population displacement have adversely affected Somalia since 1991. The current conflict - primarily related to attacks of the Al-Shabab (AS) militia and subsequent military operations, as well as intercommunal violence - continues to restrict economic activities while contributing to further population displacement and food insecurity.

The security situation in Somalia remains highly volatile and difficult to predict. The non-state armed group (NSAG) Al-Shabaab remains the main security threat, targeting civilians, government security forces, government employees, and personnel and facilities of the African Transitional Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

The formation of a new government and the peaceful transfer of power to the president in May 2022 have brought limited political stability to the country. After years of state failure and conflict, Somalis are embarking on a more promising path to the future. The creation of regional states, the rebuilding of institutions, and the positive resumption of cooperation with the international community point to a brighter future for the country.

However, the security situation in Somalia remains extremely unstable. In addition to ongoing political and cross-community tensions, the renewed intensification of military operations against Al-Shabab will likely lead to increased displacement and impede humanitarian access. Attacks against civilians and aid workers also disrupt livelihoods and hinder humanitarian response activities, particularly in areas that lack established local authorities and where Al-Shabab militia is present. 

UN agencies in the country say their efforts to reach those affected are limited, mainly by a lack of funding and access due to conflict in some areas. 

While Al-Shabab controls parts of southern Somalia, the escalation of the military offensive against the militia has significant humanitarian implications, including increased displacement and reprisal attacks. Between 2022 and 2023, Somalia won significant victories against Al-Shabab, while the militant group also increased its counterattacks. The military offensive by government and allied forces against non-state armed groups, particularly Al-Shabab, continued in 2024, although with less intensity than in the previous two years.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict in central and southern Somalia, while at the same time being caught up in inter-clan conflict. Inter-clan fighting over access to natural resources and political power persists, exposing civilians to mounting violence and displacement in several regions. 

The security situation in Somalia remains highly volatile and difficult to predict. Al-Shabab remains the main security threat, although the Islamic State of Somalia (IS) has become increasingly active in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. IS in Somalia was formed in October 2015 by a group of former al-Shabab fighters.

Security experts have reported that IS in Somalia expanded its membership over the past year. The group was previously estimated to have between 100 and 400 fighters, but Somali experts put the current number at between 500 and 600 fighters. Most of the new fighters are said to be from the Middle East, as well as eastern and northern Africa.

Donations

Your donation for the Somalia emergency can help United Nations agencies, international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and their local partners to rapidly provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other aid to the people who need it most.

Currently, many NGOs and UN agencies are appealing for the Horn of Africa hunger crisis or the global hunger crisis. You may also consider making an unearmarked donation or a broader earmarked donation.

To find other organizations to which you can donate, visit: Humanitarian Crisis Relief, Refugees and IDPs, Children in Need, Hunger and Food Insecurity, Medical Humanitarian Aid, Vulnerable Groups, Faith-Based Humanitarian Organizations, and Human Rights Organizations.

Further information

Last updated: 26/02/2025

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