United Nations, February 26 – Approximately 6.5 million people, or about a third of Somalia's population, will face crisis levels of hunger by March, an increase of 1.7 million since January, UN officials warned.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the UN headquarters via video link, World Food Programme (WFP) Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Ross Smith, said the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report for Somalia, released on Tuesday, confirmed fears that the humanitarian situation in Somalia has significantly worsened.
"Of these, two million of the most vulnerable women and children are expected to face severe hunger," he said, adding that over 1.8 million children under the age of 5 are expected to face acute malnutrition in 2026.
Smith said Somalia is currently experiencing a very complex hunger crisis, with two rainy seasons failing, ongoing conflict and insecurity, and thousands of people being forced to flee their homes in search of shelter, food, and basic services.
Meanwhile, agencies in Somalia, including WFP, are facing a severe lack of resources, he warned, adding that without urgent funding, WFP's life-saving emergency food and nutrition assistance in the country will be forced to cut support to the most vulnerable and eventually come to an end soon, Xinhua news agency reported.
Rein Paulsen, Director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), highlighted the drought that is having a devastating effect on Somalia's agriculture. "Specifically, this means widespread crop and livestock losses in addition to large-scale displacement of people."
As a result of the drought, the country's last main cereal harvest was 83 per cent lower than the long-term average between 1995 and 2025, and livestock births have also dropped, said Paulsen, stressing the urgency of life-saving assistance to protect lives and actions to prevent a collapse of rural farming and pastoral livelihoods.
To respond to the situation, FAO needs $85 million to support a million of the most vulnerable, high-risk, underserved rural people at the moment, but it has just $6 million to date, he said.