Somalia faces severe malnutrition crisis as WFP warns of aid halt

An internally displaced Somali child is screened for malnutrition at the Daynile hospital as shortages of lifesaving therapeutic foods caused by shipping disruptions due to the Iran war have forced clinics treating severely malnourished children to turn away patients and ration supplies in drought-hit Somalia, in Daynile district of Mogadishu, Somalia April 20, 2026. REUTERS/Feisal Omar

GENEVA, May ⁠8 (Reuters) - Somalia faces a severe malnutrition crisis and urgently needs more aid ⁠funding to avert a catastrophe, the United Nations World Food Programme said ‌on Friday, warning it may be forced to halt humanitarian support from July without additional financing.

A combination of multiple failed rain seasons, which have wiped out crops and livestock, and ongoing conflict and insecurity ​is pushing people in Somalia into dangerous levels of ⁠hunger at a time of radicalcuts ⁠in foreign aid and aid shortages sparked by the war on Iran, the WFP ⁠said.

Some ‌6 million people in Somalia, or almost one in three, are facing acute hunger, while 1.9 million children are acutely malnourished, according to the WFP.

"Somalia ⁠faces a really severe malnutrition crisis and is one ​of the biggest malnutrition ‌hotspots in the world," Matthew Hollingworth, WFP assistant executive director for programme operations, ⁠told reporters in ​Geneva. He spoke via video link from Rome.

Somalia faces several overlapping conflicts, including a long-running Islamist insurgency by the Al-Shabaab militant group against the federal government as well as political ⁠disputes between Mogadishu and regional states over power and ​security.

The situation in the country bears similar warning signs to 2022, when Somalia was on the brink of famine following a prolonged drought, but the difference this time is ⁠that aid agencies do not have the funding to respond at a massive scale, the WFP said.

The agency, which manages 90% of the food security response to Somalia, has had to reduce the number of people it can reach to 500,000 from ​2 million, and could have to halt its services altogether ⁠by July due to funding cuts,Hollingworth added.

The WFP and the wider humanitarian sector also ​face widespread shortages of life-saving aid, with Ready-to-use-Therapeutic-Food facing ‌delays of up to 40 days, due ​to supply chain disruption sparked by the war in the Middle East, Hollingworth said.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin Editing by Ludwig Burger and Miranda Murray)