Somalia faces famine risk as aid funding collapses and UK plans to halve support

Somalia is facing a new famine risk as international aid collapses and millions of people are left without enough food or medical care. Food and health supplies are stretched to their limits. Drought, flooding, conflict and displacement have left families dependent on a shrinking number of clinics and aid centres.

Less than 2% of the millions of people in need are expected to receive food aid in the coming months. The UK is planning to nearly halve its humanitarian funding to Somalia. The move follows the abrupt shutdown of USAID, one of the largest donors. Aid organisations say they are now forced into hyper-prioritisation, choosing who to help with very limited resources.

Health services are already shrinking. About 205 clinics closed in August because of funding cuts. A further 618 are likely to close under severe funding cut scenarios. At one clinic near a camp, nurses handed out the last free medicines to mothers with children under five. Staff have not been paid for more than a month and are working as volunteers to keep the clinic open.

In Mogadishu, hospitals and emergency units are treating severely malnourished children. One child, Bebe Obah, arrived with pneumonia, diarrhoea and acute malnutrition. She died less than three hours later. Mothers from areas at risk of famine, insecurity and terrorism have brought their children to the few lifelines left.

Displacement is worsening the crisis. In Baidoa, a south-western city facing the highest famine risk in Somalia, clashes between government forces and opposition militias have driven hundreds of people out. Families arriving at camps on the edge of Mogadishu say they have found no food and little safety. Some women said their only food that day was tea and juice for their young children. One mother, Asli, was cooking a small pot of rice for a family of 17.

In Dolo, a town bordering Ethiopia, the era of mass assistance has ended. The town was once a humanitarian hub for communities hit by drought, flooding and armed violence. Displaced people now arrive to find empty warehouses and no ration packs. The World Food Programme's warehouses in Somalia are hollow. One site built to store more than 7,000 metric tonnes of food aid now stands empty. A WFP worker said it was the first time they had seen the warehouses empty since joining the agency.

Some longer-term projects are trying to replace emergency relief. Farmland donated by the government and funded by the World Food Programme is being worked by men and women who sell crops to support their families. But emergency wards remain overwhelmed and overstretched. In one ward in Dolo, displaced mothers can only find nutrition for their babies when it is almost too late.

The situation is dire. Families are threatened by famine again, but this time there is little to shield them from the consequences of disappearing aid.