Attachments
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Somalia’s food security and nutrition crisis continues to worsen, with 6.5 million people facing acute food insecurity IPC Phase 3 and above, including 2 million in Emergency IPC Phase 4, alongside critical levels of acute malnutrition affecting an estimated 1.84 million children, underscoring the scale and severity of humanitarian needs.
- Severe funding shortfalls are disrupting essential health and nutrition services and constraining the humanitarian response, forcing WFP to implement increasingly sharp prioritization amid rising needs.
- Without urgent new funding, life‑saving assistance will continue to decrease through July after which lifesaving assistance may come to a complete halt without new resources, significantly heightening the risk of worsening food insecurity and malnutrition.
SITUATION OVERVIEW
• Somalia is facing one of its most complex food emergencies in years. Drought, insecurity, limited humanitarian assistance, and now the ripple effects of the conflict in the Middle East, worsen all conditions that push humanitarian needs and drive hunger to alarming levels.
• Ongoing instability in the Middle East is adding pressure to the country’s fragile situation, disrupting regional supply routes and driving up fuel, food, and fertilizer prices, as well as causing shipping and supply chain delays affecting nutrition commodities. This is impacting transport, markets, and household food access, with continued risks to assistance delivery, particularly in southern Somalia.
• Seasonal rainfall has begun in parts of Somalia, improving water availability in some northern and central areas; however, rainfall remains limited and uneven in southern regions, with drought persisting across Lower and Middle Shabelle, Bay, Bakool, Lower and Middle Juba, and parts of Gedo and Hiraan, where only localized light to moderate rainfall is expected and recovery is likely to remain gradual and uneven amid continued livelihood stress throughout the Gu season.
• WFP, together with FAO, FSNAU and the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics, is conducting Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Assessments and Emergency Food Security Assessments in severely drought‑affected areas. Data collection is underway, with updated IPC f indings expected in early May 2026.
• Thanks to multilateral contributions, WFP avoided a complete halt to life‑saving food assistance in April and is now able to continue providing support, though at reduced scale, through July.