A third of Somalia's population, 6.5 million people, face crisis levels of hunger, an increase of 25% since January, according to estimates released in February by the Somali government and the United Nations. This demographic upheaval is compounded by a severe drought, described as potentially the worst in Somali history, which has displaced another 200,000 people this year.
Abdi Ahmed Farah, a 70-year-old pastoralist in Puntland, has seen hundreds of his goats die in a region where steady rain has not fallen for three years. He has incurred debt purchasing water, and his family now subsists on one meal daily: rice with sugar and oil. Farah reported considering abandoning his family due to his inability to provide for them, as his youngest child was born three weeks ago and his wife produces only occasional drops of breast milk.
Food security experts warn that nearly a half-million children in Somalia might face severe acute malnutrition, a figure higher than those requiring treatment during droughts in 2011 and 2022. Hameed Nuru, the U.N. World Food Program director for Somalia, stated that "2026 is the worst year on record for Somalia in terms of drought," adding that "Children have started dying."
In Usgure, a village home to 700 families, community leader Abshir Hirsi Ali reported that the local economy has collapsed due to its reliance on pastoralists like Farah. Shops have closed, and food rations have dwindled. A recent, brief shower brought puddles of dirty rainwater, which some desperate families drank, leading to a high number of people with fever.
The Globalist Mechanism
The crisis is exacerbated by significant aid cuts, most notably from the Trump administration, and rising global prices stemming from the Iran war. Aid funding to Somalia dropped to $531 million in 2025, a substantial reduction from the nearly five times greater amount of $2.38 billion received in 2022. The United States had been Somalia’s top donor.
Somalia's reliance on global supply chains is evident, as the nation imports 70% of its food and purchases most of its fuel from the Middle East. Production of staple crops like maize and sorghum during the October-December rainy season was the lowest on record, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) had aimed to provide food aid to 2 million people this year but has only reached 300,000 due to these funding gaps. Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Somalia, warned that "Unless there is a sudden and substantial response from donors, the outlook is deeply concerning," noting that a drought of similar severity in 2022 received a response five times greater.
Cultural and Demographic Dispossession
Beyond the 200,000 displaced this year by the current drought, decades of conflict have already displaced millions of people within Somalia. Kevin Mackey, Somalia director for World Vision, stated that "People are on the move… and when people move, people die." Some individuals have walked for nine days to reach aid in Dollow in the south.
Farah, who once owned 680 goats, now has only 110, which are too thin to sell or trade for essential goods like rice. Muhubo Tahir Omar, a 47-year-old mother of 11, sold her goats to pay for school fees, but the teachers subsequently left when payments ceased. Her last goat is now sick.
In displacement camps, families like Shukri's, a 20-year-old mother of four, face limited access to clean water, leading to children suffering from diarrhea and worsened malnourishment. She reported knowing a few people who have died. Shamis Abdirahman, director of a hospital center in Qardho, Puntland, reported that therapeutic milk for severely malnourished children is rarely in stock, forcing nurses to use homemade alternatives such as cow’s milk.
Many displaced individuals are heading to Mogadishu, the capital, where food also remains scarce. Fadumo, a 45-year-old mother of seven, moved there after her family's water sources dried up and livelihoods were threatened by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants.
Najma, mother of a 4-year-old weighing a scant 7.5 kilograms, whose family fled to Qardho after all their goats died, stated, "I don’t know what to hope for, or see how we can get back to what we had."