The global funding crisis is taking a growing toll on the most vulnerable children in Somalia, where hundreds of health and nutrition facilities have been forced to close, according to a warning issued on Friday by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Severe drought is compounding the emergency and threatening the survival of communities, as some 1.9 million children suffer from acute malnutrition.
“In Somalia today, aid cuts are closing the doors to health care. They're shutting down nutrition centers, and they're pushing water protection and education further and further from those who need it,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder to journalists in Geneva.
Speaking from Nairobi after visiting the Baidoa and Burhakaba regions northwest of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, Elder highlighted that 205 nutrition facilities have already closed amid unprecedented cuts to humanitarian aid funding. This has further limited access to essential services and care for children facing hunger and malnutrition.
“As ever, children are paying the price,” he said.
Compared to the same time last year, Somalia has seen a 32 percent increase in children admitted to stabilization centers with severe acute malnutrition and complications in the first six months of this year.
“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 Elder.
Consecutive failed rains and worsening drought have ruined crops and livestock, leaving hundreds of thousands of people across the country without food or water. More than half a million people were displaced in the first three months of 2026, with drought accounting for nine out of ten displacements.
Alarmingly, 85 percent of those displaced are women and children, who are among those 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 worsen Somalia's ongoing humanitarian crisis, as severe flooding is forecast in the coming months. While the UN and its partners have ramped up preparations for El Niño, additional funding is urgently needed.
“Funding cuts have contributed to a 30 percent 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 (WFP), approximately six million people in Somalia face acute food insecurity. Nearly 500,000 children under the age of five urgently need treatment for severe acute malnutrition.
“Nearly 1.9 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,” Elder stressed.
Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) can be fatal within weeks if left untreated. Children with SAM require immediate, intensive treatment because they are extremely vulnerable to life-threatening complications. Their death rate is 12 times higher than that of well-nourished children. Malnutrition also weakens the immune system, making children more susceptible to infectious diseases.
During the 2022 drought, UNICEF's support helped 130,000 girls and boys stay in school, which is a crucial aspect of child protection in a country with one of the world's highest rates of reported violations against children. From 2024 to 2025, thousands of children formerly associated with armed groups or at risk of recruitment received reintegration support through child protection service points.
According to the UNICEF’s spokesperson, in today’s interconnected world, cuts to humanitarian aid risk undermining not only lives and livelihoods, but also security and economic stability beyond Somalia.
“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,” Elder said.
Friday’s alert from UNICEF comes after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned earlier this week that severe drought and shrinking humanitarian assistance due to funding shortfalls are taking a heavy toll on communities in Somalia, especially in the northern and central regions.
In three northern districts — Laas Caanood, Badhan, and Buuhoodle — ten public hospitals are struggling to stay open due to insufficient funding, OCHA reported.
Previously, Tom Fletcher, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, allocated US$10 million for a rapid response to the drought in Somalia. However, overall funding remains critically low, hindering the humanitarian response. To date, less than a third of the $852 million sought in this year's humanitarian appeal has been funded.
On Wednesday, OCHA emphasized that the situation is particularly dire in the regions of Sool, Sanaag, Bari, Nugaal, and Mudug, where up to 1.9 million people are estimated to be severely food insecure. The drought has triggered a severe water crisis, with more than three-quarters of traditional water sources in some regions drying up.
Meanwhile, the ripple effects of the US-Israeli war on Iran and the wider conflict in the Middle East are putting further pressure on Somalia’s most vulnerable people. Higher fuel costs and supply chain disruptions are driving up food prices by as much as 20 percent.