Somalia Faces Escalating Crisis as Drought and Funding Shortfalls Threaten Millions
Somalia faces further suffering as a worsening drought and fighting force thousands from their homes. The latest IPC analysis shows hunger tightening its grip across the country, with more than 3.4 million people already in crisis levels of food insecurity, and 1.85 million children suffering acute malnutrition. As in every crisis, it is women and girls who are paying the highest price, forced out of school, into early marriages, and into deeper cycles of poverty and despair.
“Droughts in Somalia have repeatedly eroded the rights of women and girls. We have seen girls drop out of school, marry early, or bear the burden of finding water and food in impossible conditions,” said Ummkalthum Dubow, CARE Somalia Country Director. “Now, with declining humanitarian funding, those dangers are only deepening. Without adequate support, the hard-won progress in protecting women and girls is at risk of being reversed.”
Without an urgent increase in funding, CARE warns it will be forced to scale down operations from October 2025, even as humanitarian needs continue to rise and forecasts predict another failed rainy season.
Across Somalia, families like 52-year-old Sokorey Ali Adan’s are enduring the harsh reality of hunger and displacement. Sokorey, a mother of five children, two boys and three girls, fled Barire village. The area had been under the control of armed combatants who opposed the government. Fierce fighting to retake the community, followed by years of failed rains, wiped out her farmland and crops, leaving the family with nothing. She now lives with her husband and seven family members in the Qorsul IDP camp, struggling to survive. “We lost everything,” she says. “My children often go to bed hungry, and we are currently living in a very difficult situation.”
Before fleeing, Sokorey’s family farmed maize, beans, and tomatoes, earning a modest living. Today, she has no source of income and relies entirely on the goodwill of neighbors in the camp. Her children no longer attend school, and every day is a struggle to find enough food or water. “The biggest problem we are suffering from is hunger,” she said. “We need food, water, and shelter.”
Communities that have endured years of loss now face the possibility of drought as the dry spell worsens. Women and girls, who often eat less and last, travel furthest for water, and carry the responsibility of keeping families alive, stand to lose the most as the crisis deepens.
CARE Somalia, together with its local partners, continues to deliver vital humanitarian assistance across the country to respond to the worsening crisis. In partnership with Wajir Development Association (WASDA), CARE provides essential health and nutrition services in Badhadhe, Afmadhow, and Dobley districts of Lower Jubba. In Galgadud, CARE works alongside Daryeel Bulsho Guud (DBG) to provide cash assistance and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs in Abudwaq and Dhusamareeb districts. CARE and its partners are also delivering life-saving interventions in health, nutrition, protection, and support for survivors of gender based violence, food aid, and livelihood recovery, reaching displaced and drought-affected families struggling through one of the harshest hunger seasons in years.
“Unless donors urgently step forward with funding and resources, Somalia risks slipping back into the devastating conditions we have seen before,” said Ummkalthum Dubow. “We can prevent the suffering of millions, protect the rights of women and girls, and preserve the future of communities already on the edge of survival if donors choose this moment to act.”
By Allafrica
