The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that recent fighting in Puntland State in northeastern Somalia, as well as in Middle and Lower Shabelle regions in the center of the country, has forced at least 110,000 people to flee their homes. According to OCHA, tens of thousands of people have also been displaced in recent months by ongoing inter-clan clashes in several other areas of the East African country.
In an update on Wednesday, OCHA said that in addition to the fighting, climate factors were also driving displacement, with prolonged dry conditions and lower than expected rainfall in several regions.
Multiple areas of Somalia are at risk of drought due to extreme dry conditions, with hundreds of thousands of families likely to be affected. Water sources are drying up and pastoralists are leaving their homes in search of water and pasture. In areas where people rely on commercial water supplies, prices have risen to unaffordable levels for many families.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, released last week, predicts that nearly 4.6 million people in Somalia are likely to experience high levels of hunger between now and June. This includes an estimated 784,000 people in emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC 4) and nearly 3.8 million people in crisis levels (IPC 3).
In 2025, an estimated 1.8 million children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition and require urgent treatment. Among them are nearly 480,000 children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Compared to the January 2025 analysis, the situation is projected to worsen.
OCHA warns that humanitarian needs in Somalia are mounting at a time when funding for aid operations is plummeting. Aid agencies are having to scale back or even suspend operations and focus available resources on life-saving activities for the most vulnerable.
The global drop in funding follows radical, unprecedented aid cuts by the United States since January 2025, after the new US administration took office. Other leading humanitarian donors - including the United Kingdom and Germany - have also slashed their contributions, putting at risk the lives of millions of people around the world in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
According to the IPC, in Somalia, funding cuts are already affecting essential services such as nutrition, health and safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Taking into account the cumulative impact of funding cuts, the acute malnutrition situation is projected to worsen, putting children's lives at risk.
The further worsening of acute malnutrition over the projection period is mainly driven by the closure of health facilities and the suspension of therapeutic, supplementary, and nutrition programs.
In 2025, about one-third of Somalia's population - nearly 6 million people - will be in need of humanitarian assistance. However, this year's US$1.42 billion humanitarian appeal is only 9 percent funded, with $131 million received to date.
Last year, the United States government contributed more than half of the funding received by the 2024 Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), although the HRP was only 55.5 percent resourced.
Somalia is grappling with a severe and protracted humanitarian crisis fueled by conflict, poverty, widespread displacement, climate shocks, disease outbreaks, and lack of access to basic services. At least 9.1 million Somalis out of a population of 19.3 million are affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
Protracted conflict, escalating clan violence and recurrent climatic shocks have led to widespread displacement. As of March 2025, an estimated 4.7 million Somalis remain displaced. While some 3.8 million people are internally displaced within Somalia, more than 900,000 Somalis have sought refuge in neighboring countries due to climatic shocks and armed conflict.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) estimate that the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia will increase by more than 230,000 between April and June 2025, mainly due to conflict and drought-related displacement. This would bring the total number of IDPs to more than 4 million by the end of the quarter.
According to a recent analysis, IDPs in Somalia face significantly higher rates of acute food insecurity than the rest of the population.
Meanwhile, civilians continue to bear the brunt of armed conflict in Somalia, while also being caught up in inter-clan fighting. Inter-clan fighting over access to natural resources and political power continues, exposing civilians in several regions to rising levels of violence and displacement.
The security situation in Somalia remains highly volatile and difficult to predict. The non-state armed group al-Shabab continues to be the main security threat in the country, although the Islamic State of Somalia has become increasingly active in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. IS in Somalia was formed in October 2015 by a group of former al-Shabab fighters.