Somalia child hunger crisis deepens after aid cuts, UNICEF says

Thousands flee drought in Somalia against the backdrop of sharp aid decline.

Key points

• As plenty of as 618 health facilities could close nationwide under "severe funding scenarios", Elder stated.
• One-third of Somalia's population of 19 million individuals is facing severe food shortages.
• Somalia was additionally excluded from the $2bn global humanitarian aid pledge unveiled by the US for this year due to allegations of aid diversion and corruption.
• Almost 1.9 million children are projected to be malnourished this year.
• Somalia faces a severe drought that has killed livestock, ruined harvests and destroyed livelihoods.

Thousands flee drought in Somalia against the backdrop of sharp aid decline. By AFP and Reuters. Published On 22 Aug 202622 Aug 2026.

Life-threatening malnutrition among children is spiking in Somalia as more than 200 health and nutrition facilities were forced to shutter after cuts to international aid, the United Nations has cautioned.

In practice, the East African country has seen a 32 percent jump in the number of children admitted to facilities with severe acute malnutrition and complications in the first six months of 2026, UNICEF remarked on Friday.

"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 remarked to journalists in Geneva, speaking via video from Nairobi.

As plenty of as 618 health facilities could close nationwide under "severe funding scenarios", Elder stated. "This is the wrong moment to retreat."

Somalia faces a severe drought that has killed livestock, ruined harvests and destroyed livelihoods. Aid groups estimate that drought displaced regarding 500, 000 residents between January and April, adding to roughly 3.3 million Somalis already uprooted.

Yet funding for addressing acute malnutrition in parts of Somalia has dropped by more than 80 percent this year, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, remarked earlier this month, with the United States and a number of other Western countries slashing aid.

Meanwhile, the cuts have compounded the effects of the current drought, curtailing access to water even as rates in rural and pastoral areas have quadrupled, according to UNICEF.

While a record-strength El Nino climate pattern is forecast to worsen the humanitarian crisis with severe flooding, Elder stated, meanwhile, fuel and fertiliser costs have risen since of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Almost a million children below five, adolescent girls and women risk losing access to nutrition services.

For now, somalia child hunger crisis deepens after aid cuts, UNICEF says remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.