One in Three Somalis Facing Severe Hunger as Drought Deepens, Warns Save the Children

GOOBJOOG NEWS|MOGADISHU: One in three people in Somalia is facing severe food shortages as worsening drought, conflict and soaring food prices push hunger levels close to those recorded during the near-famine of 2022, Save the Children has said.

New figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) show that 6.5 million people — about 32 percent of the population — are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity after four consecutive failed rainy seasons depleted food reserves in several regions. Of those affected, more than 2 million people are classified in Phase 4, or emergency levels, the second-highest IPC category, where urgent action is needed to save lives and livelihoods.

The crisis mirrors the devastating drought of 2022, when 6.7 million people were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity and parts of southwest Somalia were at risk of famine without immediate assistance.

“When one in three people cannot access enough food to survive, it is a clear warning that the situation is rapidly sliding back toward the desperation we witnessed in 2022,” said Mohamed Mohamud Hassan, Save the Children’s Country Director in Somalia. “The international community stepped up then to prevent a famine. We need that same urgency today, before these rising levels of hunger become impossible to reverse.”

Children are among the hardest hit. The IPC projects that more than 1.84 million children aged six to 59 months could suffer from acute malnutrition by December 2026, including 483,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition requiring urgent treatment.

Save the Children also warned that outbreaks of acute watery diarrhea, cholera, measles and diphtheria in parts of southern and central Somalia are compounding malnutrition risks, while reduced humanitarian funding has limited access to critical health and nutrition services.