The number of children receiving treatment for the most
dangerous form of malnutrition in Baidoa, south central
Somalia, nearly tripled in six months, according to new
figures from Save the Children’s stabilization centre in
the region [1], warning over the country’s worsening
drought and hunger crisis.
Health care workers at Save
the Children’s Baidoa stabilization centres treated 400
children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with other
medical complications in June – nearly three times as many
as the 143 admitted in January.
In total, the
stabilization centre treated 1,405 children between January
and June 2026, a 177% increase compared with the 507
children treated a year ago.
Poor rainfall, reduced
harvests, livestock losses, reduced foreign aid, high food
prices, and weaker household purchasing power is driving
this worsening hunger crisis in Baidoa, said Save the
Children.
The deterioration in hunger and malnutrition
also comes as Somalia marks 15 years since a famine was
declared 20 July 2011, killing over 250,000 people, about
half of them children under five.
Admissions to the
centre’s outpatient programme, which treats moderate acute
malnutrition cases also saw a sharp 268% increase in the
first four months of the year. However, stock-outs of
ready-to-use therapeutic food and other essential supplies
due to aid cuts and the conflict in the middle east has
meant that families are no longer able to receive treatment
and many have stopped going to the centre, Save the Children
said, leading to a sharp decline in admissions from April
onwards [2].
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
While faced with a worsening drought and
hunger crisis, aid organizations are also grappling with
steep funding shortfalls, with more than 300 nutrition
facilities reportedly closed across Somalia this year [3],
reducing access to treatment for vulnerable children and
families. This has caused a dangerous decline in number of
people receiving humanitarian assistance, with only 12% of
people in need being reached [4].
In May, data from
the global hunger monitor, the
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC),
showed that about half of children under 5 in Somalia are
facing acute malnutrition with Burhakaba district in the Bay
region of southwest Somalia classified to be facing the risk
of famine through June 2026 – the first time such a
classification has been announced in Somalia since the
devastating drought of 2022.
As well as hunger,
disease outbreaks are multiplying the risks for children in
Somalia, with the outbreaks of measles, cholera and acute
watery diarrhoea worsening malnutrition among children. The
Federal Government of Somalia declared a drought emergency
in November 2025, its first such declaration since the
country narrowly averted famine in 2022, but resources are
still outpacing needs.
Aisha-, 27, whose two-year-old
daughter Ayan- was treated for severe acute malnutrition at
the centre after the family was displaced by drought,
said:
“We used to depend on farming and livestock
keeping. However, the drought affected our livelihoods and
forced us to leave our home and move to Baidoa.
“My
two-year-old daughter, Ayan-, became seriously ill. Her
illness began with a fever and later developed into
diarrhoea and sores in her mouth.
“When we first
arrived, she was not eating anything. However, after
receiving treatment, she began eating well. She even started
asking for the food I was eating.”
Mustaf, a doctor at
the Save the Children-supported stabilisation centre in
Baidoa, said:
“This year, the number of children we
are treating has doubled or even tripled compared with
previous years, mainly because of the severe drought.
Pastoralists have lost their livestock and farmers have
suffered repeated crop failures.
“We depend heavily on
humanitarian assistance from organisations such as Save the
Children. Should that assistance decrease, we will be unable
to continue providing essential services. Medicines and
equipment will run short, and many children whose lives
could have been saved may not receive the treatment they
need.”
Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Save the Children’s
Country Director in Somalia, said:
“Fifteen years ago,
the world watched Somalia’s children die in a famine that
early warnings failed to stop. Today those warnings are
flashing again in the same regions, and the children
reaching our centre in Baidoa are more severely ill than we
have seen in years.
“The difference between a warning
and a tragedy is whether the response arrives in time. In
2011 it did not. We cannot let Bay Region’s children pay
that price twice.”
“We know how to prevent this. What
is missing is not knowledge but funding and speed. If
assistance reaches Bay Region now, these children will
recover and go home. If it comes late, we will be counting a
cost we promised in 2011 never to repeat. The world now has
to match that urgency.”
Save the Children is calling
for an urgent and sustained scale-up of food security,
nutrition, health and water and sanitation assistance in Bay
region and other hotspots, and for the funding needed to
reach children before Burhakaba crosses the line into
famine.
Save the Children has worked in Somalia since
1951, delivering health, nutrition, education, child
protection and emergency assistance for children and their
families. The New Zealand Government currently supports Save
the Children to deliver unconditional cash assistance and
child protection prevention and response services to
households in Somalia facing severe food insecurity through
its Disaster Response Partnership.
Notes:
[1]
Baidoa admissions figures are drawn from Save the Children’s
own programme data, January to June 2026, compared with the
same period in 2025.
[2] Cases to the outpatient
programme: 1167 cases in April, 317 in May and 520 in June,
caused by critical delays and stock-outs of ready-to-use
therapeutic food and other essential supplies used in
treatment.
[3] Save the Children, “When
Aid Disappears, Childhood Disappears Too”, 28 April
2026.
[4] IPC Somalia Acute Food Insecurity and Acute
Malnutrition Projection Update, April to June 2026, issued
14 May 2026: about half of children under five acutely
malnourished; Burhakaba at risk of famine; humanitarian
assistance reaching only 12 percent of people in IPC Phase 3
or
above.
