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Highlights
- In 2025, Somalia’s humanitarian situation remained severe, with nearly 6 million people in need of assistance due to climate shocks, conflict and insecurity, displacement, chronic fragility, and disease outbreaks. These interlinked drivers continued to deepen vulnerability particularly among children, women, and marginalized communities.
- UNICEF continued delivering critical lifesaving services. Over 1 million people accessed emergency and sustainable water services, while 440,000 children received treatment for severe acute malnutrition. UNICEF-supported health interventions enabled 490,000 people to access essential lifesaving health services, and 76,000 children and caregivers benefited from community-based mental health and psychosocial support.
- Funding shortfalls significantly constrained humanitarian action throughout the year. By December, UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) appeal was funded at 18 per cent, while the Somalia HNRP reached 27 per cent funding. Broader donor cuts, including cuts in development assistance, led to a decline in services, and an increase in humanitarian needs. Especially protection services were severely affected.
SITUATION OVERVIEW AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
In 2025, Somalia continued to face severe and complex humanitarian situation, with an estimated 5.98 million people requiring humanitarian assistance. Needs were driven by the complex interaction of climate shocks, prolonged conflict and insecurity, large-scale displacement, chronic fragility, and public health threats. Severe funding reductions reshaped the humanitarian response. By mid-year, humanitarian partners were forced to revise the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) targets from 4.6 million earlier in the year to 1.3 million people by July 2025, forcing difficult prioritization decisions and leaving many affected populations without assistance.
Climate-related shocks, mainly drought and flooding, were the most significant drivers of humanitarian needs in 2025 marked by a damaging pattern of climatic extremes. An estimated 4.6 million people faced acute food insecurity at the start of the year, with the Jilaal dry season (January-March) intensifying water and pasture shortages. The Gu season (April-June) brought localized but severe flooding particularly in riverine and low-lying areas and densely populated urban centers like Mogadishu. Flooding in May displaced over 84,000 people, destroyed shelters and sanitation facilities, contaminated water sources, and disrupted access to health and nutrition services. While Gu rains temporarily improved water availability and pasture conditions in parts of southern and central Somalia, northern regions, including Puntland, Somaliland, and contested areas of Sool and Sanaag, remained in persistent drought conditions. The failed Deyr seasonal rains (October–December) resulted in one of the driest year-end periods on record, culminating in the declaration of a national drought emergency in November 2025. Water prices surged, with the cost of a 200-liter water barrel increasing by up to 35 per cent in areas such as Gedo and Bay. By December, widespread water scarcity, pasture loss, and rising food prices pushed many communities back toward crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity, setting the stage for further deterioration into early 2026.
Malnutrition, disease burden and food insecurity levels remained high throughout the year. Earlier in 2025, an estimated 4.6 million people (24 per cent of the population) were facing high levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above), with only a marginal reduction to 4.4 million people by year’s end. The national acute malnutrition burden also remained high, with 1.8 million children under five acutely malnourished, including 479,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Climatic shocks, rising food prices, reduced agricultural production, and disrupted livelihoods continued to undermine food access. Disease outbreaks further compounded needs. AWD/cholera surged during the Gu season, particularly in flood-affected areas with poor WASH conditions, with over 8,900 cases and nine deaths reported by year end, of which 60 per cent were children below five years. Diphtheria cases increased tenfold compared to 2024, with 3,558 suspected cases and 142 deaths by Epi-week 51 (CFR of 3.9%), largely affecting zero-dose children. Measles transmission remained widespread, with 7,582 cases, predominantly among children under five. Severe funding gaps constrained service delivery, further limiting access to life-saving health and nutrition interventions.
Conflict and insecurity continued to shape both humanitarian needs and response delivery. Armed violence linked to Al-Shabaab and localized clan conflicts over land, water, and political influence persisted across multiple regions. The transition of the African Union mission and uncertainty around its future funding further contributed to operational volatility. Large parts of Middle Shabelle, Hiraan, and Galgaduud remained under heavy access restrictions, limiting assistance for an estimated 3.7 million people. While overall humanitarian access incidents declined by 26 per cent year-on-year from (243 to 179), incidents related to military operations and inter-clan violence increased, particularly in Gedo and Middle Shabelle, disrupting aid delivery to vulnerable populations.
Displacement remained both a driver and consequence of vulnerability. An estimated 3.5 million people remained displaced in 2025, the majority living in overcrowded IDP settlements with limited access to basic services. New displacements were primarily driven by drought (52 per cent) and conflict (44 per cent), with flooding acting as a significant secondary driver. Overcrowded living conditions heightened risks of disease outbreaks, particularly during the Gu flooding period.
In 2025, humanitarian funding for Somalia declined sharply at a time when needs continued to rise. Significant reductions in funding from major donors substantially constrained the resources available for humanitarian programming, resulting in difficult prioritization decisions and scale-downs across several sectors. These funding cuts had a direct impact on service delivery, particularly in high-need and hard-to-reach areas, limiting the ability of humanitarian actors to sustain life-saving interventions and respond adequately to escalating needs among vulnerable children and families. By December 2025, HNRP funding stood at approximately 27 per cent, while UNICEF’s HAC was funded at only 15 per cent, severely constraining response capacity and forcing difficult prioritization decisions. Drought conditions started to worsen by December, with La Nina–linked forecasts indicating drier and hotter-than-normal conditions extending into the 2026 Jilaal season. As a result, 4.4 million people were projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of 2025, while 1.85 million children aged 6–59 months, including 421,000 with severe acute malnutrition, were expected to require urgent nutrition support.