Cuts to Aid Deepen Somalia's Child Health Crisis

Somalia's health system has been pushed to the brink in 2025 as extreme weather, ongoing conflict, and steep reductions in international aid have converged. Where mobile outreach teams once reached remote villages, many services have been scaled back or closed, leaving mothers and children to travel long distances for basic care. If funding had been sustained, some closures could have been avoided, but donor shortfalls have forced agencies to make hard choices.

The 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan sought 1.42 billion dollars, yet the response has been sharply reprioritised: the UN now intends to reach 1.3 million people instead of 4.6 million. The World Food Programme has announced it will drastically reduce emergency food assistance, trimming the caseload from 1.1 million in August to about 350,000, and it has stated that roughly $98 million is needed to maintain minimal life-saving operations through March 2026. OCHA and partners have reported that the plan was only about 11 percent funded by late April, a gap that has translated into closed nutrition sites and fewer mobile teams.

Clinics supported by aid organisations have recorded surges in severe acute malnutrition admissions; the Kismayo stabilisation centre admitted 277 critically ill children in May and 863 between January and May. Outbreaks of diphtheria, cholera, and other waterborne diseases have also risen as water and sanitation services have been cut back. The United States' suspension of many development contracts earlier in the year has been cited by multiple agencies as a factor in the funding shortfall.

For families living in displacement sites and rural districts, the changes mean longer waits, higher costs, and greater risk for young children who need urgent nutrition and medical care.