The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the severe drought in Somalia is putting millions of lives at risk, while humanitarian aid remains severely limited due to dwindling funds. On Monday, the Somali government declared a nationwide drought emergency. The drought is particularly severe in the eastern and northern regions but is spreading to central and southern Somalia as well.
According to OCHA's latest situation report, released Thursday, drought conditions have significantly deteriorated in the northern regions due to a prolonged dry spell and inadequate rainfall during the October-December period. The situation is particularly serious in the Nugaal, Mudug, Bari, and Sanaag regions, which are experiencing their fourth consecutive season of poor rains after the 2025 Deyr season has also turned out to be below average.
Aid agencies on the ground report that grazing lands and water sources are drying up in areas where over 70 percent of livelihoods rely on nomadic pastoralism. A recent humanitarian mission to the Nugaal region found that several villages were virtually empty after almost 20,000 people reportedly migrated to other areas in search of water and pasture.
According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), about 30,000 people have been displaced by drought conditions in late October and early November alone, while over 10,000 have crossed the border to Ethiopia in search of water and pasture.
Southern and central regions are also expected to experience drought due to failed rains and extreme temperatures, which will reverse the temporary relief brought by the 2025 Gu rains and put people there also at risk of worsening hunger and malnutrition. Seasonal forecasts indicate below-average Deyr rains in the coming weeks and above-average temperatures between October and December, which are expected to exacerbate the drought nationwide.
Somalia’s hunger crisis
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, more than one in five Somalis — at least 4.4 million people — are facing high levels of acute food insecurity, including more than 920,000 people facing emergency levels.
The nutritional situation is equally alarming: nearly 1.9 million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition, of whom more than 420,000 face severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and 1.43 million suffer from moderate acute malnutrition (MAM).
SAM, also known as severe wasting, is the deadliest form of malnutrition. Children diagnosed with SAM require immediate, intensive treatment because they are extremely vulnerable to life-threatening complications and have a high mortality rate if they receive inadequate care.
Malnutrition also weakens the immune system, making children more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Factors contributing to the malnutrition crisis include insecurity, which limits access to agriculture, extreme weather conditions such as drought, and high food prices.
Crippling funding shortfalls mean people are left without life-saving assistance
Aid shortages continue to take a growing toll on Somalia's most vulnerable, leaving them without access to food, healthcare, nutritional support, and safe water. Funding cuts are particularly devastating for severely malnourished children who have lost or will soon lose access to essential treatment.
The new government drought declaration calls on humanitarian organizations to ramp up their life-saving efforts in the areas of nutrition, health, water, and food security.
This appeal comes as aid organizations have been forced to reduce or suspend emergency assistance due to crippling funding shortfalls. To date, only 24 percent of the $1.4 billion Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan has been funded, with $318 million received.
OCHA warns that, as a result, the total number of people receiving emergency food assistance will drop sharply — from 1.1 million in August to 350,000 this month. In other words, less than 10 percent of those in urgent need of food assistance for survival in Somalia will receive aid.
Funding shortfalls have also led to the suspension of critical health and nutrition services. Currently, over 200 health facilities are either non-functional or closed, and mobile health teams have been disbanded, affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
One-third of Somalia's population requires humanitarian assistance
Amid decades of conflict and instability, humanitarian needs in Somalia remain high, with 6 million Somalis in need of assistance. Humanitarian organizations are urgently appealing for additional funding to expand humanitarian and resilience programs.
The country is in the midst of a severe and prolonged humanitarian crisis fueled by conflict, violence, poverty, widespread displacement, climate shocks, disease outbreaks, and limited access to basic services. In 2025, more than one-third of Somalia's population is in need of humanitarian aid.
According to the most recently conducted humanitarian needs assessments, an estimated 7.5 million people have been affected by recent shocks across 64 of Somalia’s 90 districts, which are the second-level administrative divisions of the country, beneath the 18 regions.
Ongoing conflict, escalating clan violence, and extreme weather events caused by climate change have sparked widespread displacement. An estimated 4.5 million Somalis remain displaced. Of those, 3.6 million are displaced within Somalia and over 900,000 have fled to neighboring countries.
In the first ten months of 2025 alone, more than 316,000 people were newly displaced in Somalia due to conflict, drought, and floods.
Human rights in Somalia impacted by drought and displacement
On Monday, the human rights organization Amnesty International accused Somali authorities and the international community of repeatedly failing to protect thousands of displaced people from drought-affected communities in southern Somalia, thereby exposing them to violations of their rights to food, water, family, health, and life.
In a new report, Amnesty International documented the experiences of displaced people in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, revealing how persistent drought, coupled with conflict and marginalization, forced thousands to flee southern Somalia, often facing neglect from the Somali authorities and the international community.
The human rights group stressed that the harsh drought conditions, exacerbated by human-induced climate change, increased food prices and depleted food supplies, resulting in widespread malnutrition and food insecurity. At the same time, the scarcity of clean water forced people to drink contaminated water, contributing to the spread of waterborne diseases like cholera.
Further information
Full text: Monthly Humanitarian Update, September and October 2025, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), situation report, published November 13, 2025
https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/somalia/monthly-humanitarian-update-september-and-october-2025
Full text: No rain, no food, no animals: the human rights impact of drought and displacement in Somalia, Amnesty International, report, published November 10, 2025
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/11/somalia-thousands-of-climate-displaced-individuals-being-failed-by-authorities-and-the-international-community-new-report/