More than 300,000 Somalis have been forced from their homes since January as a devastating combination of drought, conflict and international aid cuts pushes the Horn of Africa nation deeper into humanitarian crisis.
The convergence of three consecutive failed rainy seasons, ongoing conflict with the al-Qaeda-linked armed group al-Shabab, and sharp reductions in foreign assistance has created what UN officials describe as desperate conditions across Somalia. Makeshift displacement camps around Kismayo, the capital of Jubaland state, are struggling to cope with the influx of families fleeing rural areas where crops have failed and livestock have died.
Maryam, a 46-year-old mother, buried two of her children and watched her goats starve and crops fail before abandoning her village along the Jubba River.After watching her goats starve and crops fail, she made the difficult journey to the Kismayo camps with her six remaining children.
"We are hungry. We need care and help," said Maryam.
Her village remains under the control of al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked armed group that has begun seizing the limited food supplies still available in rural areas. The camps offer little respite — in March alone, five children died of malnutrition at the Kismayo displacement site.
Aid Infrastructure Collapses
Several international organizations have stopped operations in the Kismayo camp for internally displaced people, largely due to aid cuts ordered by US President Donald Trump last year. The reductions have had what Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Somalia director for Save the Children, called "a huge impact on our work."
More than 200 health centres and 400 schools have closed since last year. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been forced to reduce its Somalia program from $2.6 billion in 2023 to $852 million this year, with only 13 percent of the reduced target raised so far.
Tom Fletcher, head of OCHA, described the situation in stark terms.
"It's a toxic cocktail of factors … Things are really, really desperate," Fletcher said. "Often we're having to choose which lives to save and which lives not to save."
Local officials acknowledge they lack resources to address the scale of need. Ali Adan Ali, a Jubaland official managing displaced populations, said authorities "cannot afford to actually address all the needs of these people."
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Health System Overwhelmed
Three consecutive seasons of failed rains have doubled Somalia's malnutrition rate, affecting a population where a third already lacked regular meals before the current emergency. Farmers describe one of the worst droughts ever recorded in the country.
The health infrastructure is overwhelmed. A mobile clinic supported by Save the Children — the only one still operating for multiple camps around Kismayo — treats severely malnourished children like the one-year-old daughter of Khadija, a 45-year-old woman who lost her livestock in last year's drought.
"We have nothing to eat," said Khadija.
A hospital in Kismayo — the only facility in the region capable of treating the most severe malnutrition cases — is turning patients away for lack of space and staff. Every bed is occupied by starving infants, some on ventilators with intravenous drips. Cases have tripled since last year.
Regional Security Implications
The crisis reflects broader instability patterns across the Horn of Africa, where Somalia's humanitarian emergencies historically drive refugee flows into neighboring countries. Ethiopia, which shares a 1,600-kilometer border with Somalia, hosts thousands of Somali refugees and faces its own food security challenges in the Somali Regional State.
The crisis is being compounded by economic pressure from outside the Horn. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Middle East war has driven up fuel prices regionally, with knock-on effects on food and water supplies across Somalia, where more than 90 percent of essential goods are imported. OCHA has warned that transport costs for aid deliveries have doubled, slowing shipments of nutrition supplies and medicine into the country.
Even if the forthcoming rainy season is normal, recovery will take months. Somalia ranks among the world's most vulnerable countries to climate change, with three consecutive failed rainy seasons among the worst droughts ever recorded.
Displaced families in the camps look for construction or cleaning work in Kismayo or sell firewood. Opportunities are limited. With only 13 percent of OCHA's $852 million Somalia appeal funded, more aid programmes are expected to shut down before the next rainy season arrives.
