Hunger crisis is tearing communities in Somalia apart. Drought has forced families from their homes, but the critical help they await has not arrived.
Hunger crisis: Failed rains and mass displacement push millions toward starvation
According to aid workers, the failed Deyr rains in September delivered the latest blow in a relentless climate crisis. The dry spell destroyed livelihoods, killed livestock, and caused another year of harvest failure.
More than 500,000 people have fled their homes, over 90 per cent because of drought. According to the UN OCHA’s Somalia Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026, that figure adds to the 3.3 million Somalis already displaced.
The agency says displaced families now face the highest risk of starvation.
Fatima, 40, has fled five times, three times because of conflict and twice because of drought. Each time, she left behind land, livestock, and the few possessions her family saved.
“This is the fifth time I have fled. I am still facing the drought, and I have nothing to feed my family,” Fatima said.
Many families walked for days, chewing wild plants along the road. They arrived at displacement camps in Baidoa and Dollow with nothing.
Although most of the families reached the sites malnourished and exhausted, carrying children too weak to walk. But instead of relief, they found abandonment, residents said.
US cuts aid over corruption allegations as families flee to empty camps
Aid funding to Somalia has declined sharply. OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service shows humanitarian appeals received only 14 per cent of the requested funds.
Officials said the United States deliberately left Somalia out of its $2 billion global humanitarian pledge for this year. The decision followed allegations of aid diversion, corruption, and the destruction of a US-funded World Food Programme warehouse in the country.
“Humanitarian services are one of the only things we can rely on, but it is completely gone,” said a man displaced from Bakool.
Meanwhile, the April-June rainy season, known as Gu, has now begun, but it offers limited relief. For families who lost their herds and farms after years of successive droughts, rain alone cannot rebuild what drought destroyed, experts said.
In a recent development, the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has released $10 million to combat the drought ravaging Somalia. It is estimated that 6.5 million people now face crisis-level hunger or worse, which is an increase of 1.7 million since January.