Somalia’s Malnutrition Crisis Deepens as Severe Cases Nearly Triple in Baidoa

July 31, 2026
By Mintesinot Nigussie

The number of children receiving treatment for severe acute malnutrition in Baidoa, south-central Somalia, has nearly tripled in six months as drought, rising food prices and declining humanitarian support intensify the country’s hunger crisis, according to figures from Save the Children. The organisation’s stabilisation centre in Baidoa treated 400 children with severe acute malnutrition and related medical complications in June 2026, compared with 143 children admitted in January. Between January and June, the centre provided treatment to 1,405 children, a 177 percent increase from 507 children during the same period a year earlier.

Save the Children attributed the worsening conditions to poor rainfall, reduced harvests, livestock losses, declining foreign aid, high food costs and weakened household purchasing power. The crisis is unfolding as Somalia marks 15 years since the 2011 famine, which killed more than 250,000 people, including about half a million children under the age of five. The organisation said shortages of ready-to-use therapeutic food and other essential supplies have disrupted treatment programmes, with aid cuts and global conflicts contributing to supply constraints. Admissions to outpatient programmes treating moderate acute malnutrition increased by 268 percent during the first four months of 2026, before declining from April as families struggled to access continued support.

Humanitarian agencies are facing significant funding shortages, with more than 300 nutrition facilities reportedly closed across Somalia this year, reducing access to care for vulnerable children. Save the Children said only 12 percent of people requiring humanitarian assistance are currently being reached. The deterioration comes after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned in May that about half of children under five in Somalia were experiencing acute malnutrition. The IPC also classified Burhakaba district in the Bay region as facing a risk of famine through June 2026, marking the first such warning in Somalia since the 2022 drought.

Disease outbreaks, including measles, cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, are adding further pressure on children already affected by hunger. Somalia declared a national drought emergency in November 2025, its first such declaration since the country narrowly avoided famine in 2022. Aisha, 27, whose two-year-old daughter Ayan received treatment at the Baidoa centre after the family was displaced by drought, said the loss of farming and livestock forced them to leave their home. "When we first arrived, she was not eating anything. However, after receiving treatment, she began eating well," Aisha said.

Mustaf, a doctor at the Save the Children-supported centre, said the number of children requiring treatment had increased significantly compared with previous years as drought conditions worsened. "This year, the number of children we are treating has doubled or even tripled compared with previous years, mainly because of the severe drought," he said, warning that reduced humanitarian support could leave facilities without sufficient medicines and equipment. Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Save the Children’s country director in Somalia, said early warnings of a worsening crisis required a faster response to prevent further loss of life. Save the Children is calling for increased funding for food security, nutrition, health, water and sanitation programmes in the Bay region and other high-risk areas before conditions deteriorate further.

Source: FSX Business News