About 6.5 million people in Somalia face acute hunger due to drought, government and UN say

Somalia is facing one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, as the number of people struggling with acute hunger has reached 6.5 million. A joint statement by the country's federal government and United Nations agencies, published on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, constitutes a dramatic call to action. The situation has worsened alarmingly in just a year, and the number of starving residents has doubled. Somalia, located in the Horn of Africa, has for decades struggled with fragile state institutions, natural disasters, and violence. The country experienced deep destabilization after the fall of Siad Barre's government in 1991, which initiated a long period of civil war, collapse of state structures, and international interventions. Recurring droughts, part of the broader problem of climate change in the region, regularly lead to humanitarian disasters, like the one in 2011, which caused a famine and the deaths of hundreds of thousands. New data from the IPC report classifies the situation in Somalia as phases three (crisis) to four (emergency) on the five-phase hunger scale. About two million people are in the most severe, fourth phase. Phase five signifies a famine catastrophe. „"The drought ... has deepened alarmingly, with soaring water prices, limited food supplies, dying livestock, and very little humanitarian funding"” — UN humanitarian aid coordinator in Somalia – stated the UN humanitarian aid coordinator in Somalia. The crisis consists of three main causes: prolonged drought caused by years of failed rains, which has destroyed crops and led to mass livestock deaths; ongoing conflict and violence from the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab, which limits humanitarian aid access to large parts of the country; and global cuts in aid funding, which have resulted in historically low support levels. The effects are already tragically visible: tens of thousands of people have been internally displaced, crowding into camps around the capital, Mogadishu, and other cities. The most vulnerable group are children. It is estimated that in 2026, 1.84 million children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition, posing a direct threat to their lives and development. Meanwhile, the aid system is on the brink of collapse. The UN World Food Programme has warned that without an immediate influx of new funds, food deliveries may be halted as early as April. The Somali government declared a state of emergency due to drought in November, but the scale of the crisis requires an urgent and massive international response, which is currently lacking.