Somalia is facing a severe malnutrition crisis affecting millions of people and urgently needs increased international funding to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned Friday.
The agency said about six million people nearly one in three Somalis are currently facing acute hunger, while 1.9 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition amid worsening food insecurity across the Horn of Africa nation.
The warning was issued by the World Food Programme, which said it may be forced to suspend humanitarian operations in Somalia from July if additional funding is not secured.
Matthew Hollingworth, WFP assistant executive director for programme operations, said Somalia was “one of the biggest malnutrition hotspots in the world,” citing overlapping crises including failed rainy seasons, conflict and declining international aid.
He said via video link from Rome that repeated drought conditions have destroyed crops and livestock, leaving vulnerable communities increasingly dependent on humanitarian assistance.
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Somalia has faced successive seasons of poor rainfall, contributing to collapsing harvests and widespread loss of livestock — a key source of income and nutrition for rural households.
At the same time, insecurity linked to the long-running insurgency by Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab continues to restrict access to affected areas and complicate aid delivery.
The WFP said funding shortages have already forced it to significantly scale back operations. The agency has reduced the number of people it can assist from about two million to 500,000.
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Without new financial commitments, officials warned that even this reduced level of support could end within months.
“The situation bears similar warning signs to 2022, when Somalia was on the brink of famine following a prolonged drought,” Hollingworth said. “The difference this time is that we do not have the funding to respond at scale.”
The agency, which handles around 90 percent of Somalia’s food security response, said the funding gap comes at a time when global humanitarian budgets are under increasing strain and supply chains remain disrupted.
It also warned that shortages of ready-to-use therapeutic food — used to treat severely malnourished children — are being exacerbated by logistical delays of up to 40 days due to wider supply chain disruptions.
Somalia’s crisis is compounded by political instability and competing regional disputes over security and governance, further limiting the state’s ability to respond effectively.
The WFP has repeatedly cautioned that prolonged underfunding of humanitarian operations in fragile states risks reversing gains made in food security over the past decade.
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Humanitarian agencies are calling for urgent donor support to stabilise aid pipelines, scale up emergency nutrition programmes and prevent further deterioration in affected regions.
Without immediate intervention, aid officials warn that Somalia could face a rapid escalation in hunger-related deaths and child malnutrition in the coming months.
