Severe humanitarian funding shortfalls have cut off hundreds of thousands of Somalis from safe water supplies in recent months, putting entire communities at heightened risk of deadly disease outbreaks, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warned on Monday. Meanwhile, the United Nations reported that the ongoing severe drought in northern Somalia has affected an estimated 2.5 million people across 26 districts.
Aid shortages continue to take a growing toll on Somalia's most vulnerable people, leaving them without access to vital healthcare, nutritional support, and safe water. Brutal funding cuts are devastating for severely malnourished children who have lost or will soon lose access to lifesaving treatment.
In a statement today, NRC said that, with only a fraction of the humanitarian appeal for Somalia funded at the start of this year, the collapse of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services is accelerating the spread of preventable diseases, including cholera and acute watery diarrhea.
Losing access to safe water
More than 300,000 people, mostly displaced families living in overcrowded settlements and rural communities across Somalia, have lost access to clean water due to the reduction or shutdown of water trucking and sanitation systems.
Funding for water and sanitation has been particularly hard hit, standing at less than 12 percent of what is needed. This has forced aid agencies to make agonizing choices amid rapidly rising needs.
In the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP), the UN appealed for US$1.42 billion to assist 4.6 million people in Somalia. However, only 17 percent of the requested funds have been received thus far.
Brutal funding cuts have forced aid agencies to slash their target by 72 percent, aiming to reach just 1.3 million people at a cost of $367 million.
The UN stresses that this reduction in targets does not reflect a decrease in the country's humanitarian needs as all needs and planned interventions outlined in the HNRP remain valid and urgent.
“The scale down of the humanitarian response in Somalia does not mean fewer people need aid; it means more than three million Somalis will be left to fend for themselves,” said Mohamed Abdi, NRC’s Country Director in Somalia.
“These cuts are costing lives. We are already seeing a deadly rise in waterborne diseases, especially among children under five. Families are walking for hours to find water, often dirty and unsafe, because the water points, they once depended on have gone dry.”
From January to July of this year, Somalia reported over 6,550 cases of cholera and acute watery diarrhea, including fatalities. More than 1,000 new cases were recorded in the last month alone. Nearly two-thirds of the latest cases were severe, and half of those affected were children under five.
These surging outbreaks are occurring amid drastic cuts to lifesaving services. Over 150 health facilities have closed due to the collapse of linked water and sanitation systems. In Southwest State, the number of mobile health teams has dwindled from 74 to just 25, leaving large portions of the population without access to healthcare.
The water crisis is hitting the most vulnerable people first: internally displaced people (IDPs) living in overcrowded camps and rural host communities that are already struggling with years of drought, conflict, and poverty.
The hardest-hit regions include Bay, Bakool, Gedo, Galgaduud, Hiraan, Mudug, and Lower Shabelle. Many communities in these regions relied on humanitarian-run water systems that are now nonfunctional due to a lack of funding.
Several parts of Somalia experience severe drought
In parts of the country, drought has completely dried up water wells and reduced the yield of boreholes. In the Mudug region, water prices have nearly doubled from 70 to 130 US dollars for 10,000 liters, making water unaffordable for many families.
In Puntland, authorities are seeking assistance for 800,000 people whose water sources have been depleted. In Somaliland, a drought emergency has left 650,000 people in urgent need of assistance, particularly in the Togdheer region.
“Somalia is being pushed to the brink by the combined impact of relentless conflict, climate extremes, and a sharp drop in international support,” said NRC’s Abdi.
“We are seeing the human cost of inaction every day, in the suffering of children too weak to walk, in the empty jerrycans, and in the avoidable deaths from waterborne diseases. This is a man-made disaster that can still be prevented.”
On Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) likewise warned that severe drought and funding cuts are jeopardizing lifesaving assistance in Somalia.
An estimated 2.5 million people live in areas currently classified as moderately or severely affected by drought conditions across 26 districts. Of those, nearly 900,000 live in severely impacted areas across 16 districts.
The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) recently prioritized 5 of the affected 26 districts, including Zeylac, Lughaye, Bossaso, Gaalkacyo, and Hobyo, for lifesaving assistance.
Due to reduced support for aid work, health centers are closing, food assistance has declined, and malnutrition rates are high, according to an OCHA update on the humanitarian situation. Many maternal and child health facilities are either closed or operating with limited capacity, lacking nutrition support and outpatient therapeutic programs.
Since the beginning of the year, funding reductions have seriously constrained health and nutrition programs in Somalia — posing a significant threat to an already fragile healthcare system. These cuts have affected vital health facilities, including Jowhar Maternity Hospital in Middle Shabelle, Rabdhure District Hospital in Bakool, and Ceel-Waaq Health Center in Gedo.
According to OCHA, these facilities serve as lifelines for thousands of people, and their closure would result in the loss of access to healthcare, which could lead to spikes in maternal and child mortality, cholera cases, and preventable deaths.
Additionally, the reduced capacity of mobile clinics that previously served remote and displaced communities has left over 350,000 people without access to essential services, including immunizations, outbreak responses, disease prevention, and primary healthcare.
OCHA warns that the situation will likely worsen as many health projects are set to end by December 2025 if new funding is not secured.
Rapidly escalating nutrition crisis
Humanitarian aid agencies warn that without urgent and sustained funding, the crisis in Somalia will deepen, leading to preventable suffering and loss of life. They are calling on the international community to respond swiftly to avert the further deterioration of the humanitarian situation.
The severe funding reductions come at a time when Somalia is grappling with a rapidly escalating nutrition crisis, with acute malnutrition rates soaring amid a sharp reduction in operational nutrition sites. By mid-2025, funding shortages - largely driven by the suspension of the United States financial support - forced the closure of more than 300 nutrition centers.
Somalia is one of the world’s most critical hunger hotspots. Currently, 4.6 million people are experiencing acute hunger, and it has been estimated that 1.8 million children under the age of five are likely to be acutely malnourished this year. Of those children, 479,000 are likely to be severely malnourished.
Somalia is in the midst of a severe and prolonged humanitarian crisis fueled by conflict, poverty, widespread displacement, climate shocks, disease outbreaks, and limited access to basic services. In 2025, approximately one-third of Somalia's population, or nearly 6 million people, will require humanitarian assistance.
However, at least 9.1 million Somalis, out of a population of 19.3 million, are affected by the crisis. Ongoing conflict, escalating clan violence, and extreme weather events caused by climate change have led to 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 half of 2025, more than 225,000 people were newly displaced in Somalia due to conflict, drought, and floods.