Somalia’s worst-ever drought leaves millions starving as Trump’s aid cuts and Iran war deepen hunger crisis

Abdi Ahmed Farah, 70, has watched most of his hundreds of goats perish. For three years, steady rain has eluded his part of Somalia – a reality he never imagined possible.

Now, burdened by debt from buying water, his reservoir is almost empty. His family subsists on a single daily meal of rice with sugar and oil, while his youngest child, born just three weeks ago, receives only occasional drops of breast milk from his wife.

"I have considered abandoning my family because I cannot provide for them," Farah confessed, sitting protectively before his dwindling food supplies.

Yet another devastating drought is gripping Somalia, a nation acutely vulnerable to climate shocks, affecting millions. Rivers have run dry, and crops have withered, leading experts to warn that this could be among the worst droughts in the country's history.

The crisis is exacerbated by significant aid cuts, most notably from the Trump administration, and soaring global prices driven by the Iran war. Somalia, heavily reliant on imports, sources most of its fuel from the Middle East and 70 per cent of its food from abroad.

The October-December rainy season saw the lowest production of staple crops like maize and sorghum on record, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

open image in gallery

Food security experts are sounding the alarm, predicting that nearly half a million children could face severe acute malnutrition – a figure higher than those requiring treatment during the droughts of 2011 and 2022, Unicef reports.

"2026 is the worst year on record for Somalia in terms of drought," stated Hameed Nuru, the UN World Food Programme director for Somalia. "Children have started dying."

The Somali government and the United Nations estimate that 6.5 million people, a third of the country’s population, are grappling with crisis levels of hunger – a 25 per cent increase since January. While aid agencies strive to maximise resources and the Somali diaspora sends vital funds, humanitarian workers caution that these efforts are insufficient.

"This drought is not just another cycle of dry season. It’s a repeated climate shock with shrinking humanitarian support," explained Mohamed Assair, a manager with Save the Children in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region.

Farah once owned 680 goats, but a devastating combination of food and water scarcity, alongside drought-exacerbated diseases, has left him with just 110, barely clinging to life.

"There is no market for my goats because they are so thin. Previously we would trade them for rice, but now we can’t," he lamented.

His family has been sheltering near Usgure village for ten days, surrounded by almost a dozen goat carcasses. In Usgure, home to 700 families, community leader Abshir Hirsi Ali confirmed the local economy’s collapse, heavily dependent on pastoralists like Farah. Shops have closed, and food rations are critically low.

A recent, brief downpour brought only puddles of dirty rainwater. "Some families were so desperate they drank it … now there is a high number of people with fever," Ali revealed.

Although Save the Children occasionally delivers free water to Usgure, private water trucks have quadrupled their prices, and the cost of a 50-kilogram bag of flour has surged by a third, reaching $40.

"I’m not only afraid for my family but the future of the whole village," said Muhubo Tahir Omar, a 47-year-old mother of 11. Like many parents, Omar had sold her goats to cover school fees, but "when we didn’t pay, the teachers left." Her last remaining goat is now gravely ill.

Decades of conflict in Somalia have already displaced millions, and this year’s drought has forced another 200,000 from their homes, according to UN estimates. Families are often compelled to traverse harsh landscapes with minimal supplies.

open image in gallery

"People are on the move … and when people move, people die," stated Kevin Mackey, Somalia director for humanitarian group World Vision, who recently encountered individuals who had walked for nine days to reach aid in Dollow in the south.

In a displacement camp outside Shahda village in Puntland, around 80 families reside. Shukri, a 20-year-old mother of four, typically relies on handouts for one meal a day, but now faces complete scarcity and limited access to clean water.

"The children got diarrhoea (from dirty water) and malnourishment worsened," said Shukri, who gave only her first name. "I know a few people who have died." Many are heading to the capital, Mogadishu, where food remains equally scarce.

Fadumo, a 45-year-old mother of seven, moved to Mogadishu from Lower Shabelle, where livelihoods were already imperiled by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants.

"The water sources we depended on for farming, including the river, dried up," Fadumo explained. "Conflict made our situation even worse, forcing us to flee."

Somalia was ravaged by drought in 2022, leading to an estimated 36,000 deaths, according to the UN. Yet, the aid typically mobilized for such crises is now dwindling.

"Unless there is a sudden and substantial response from donors, the outlook is deeply concerning. A drought of similar severity in 2022 received a response five times greater than what we are seeing," warned Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia.

Aid funding to Somalia plummeted to $531 million in 2025 in large part because of aid cuts by the United States, which had been Somalia's top donor. In 2022, aid funding was nearly five times as much at $2.38 billion.

The World Food Programme, which aimed to assist two million people with food aid this year, has only reached 300,000 due to these funding gaps. At a hospital centre in Qardho, Puntland, children suffering from severe acute malnutrition are treated.

However, therapeutic milk is rarely in stock, forcing nurses to resort to homemade alternatives like cow's milk, according to director Shamis Abdirahman. The centre admits around 15 children monthly, a number expected to rise with the influx of displaced people.

Four-year-old Farhia, weighing a mere 7.5 kilograms, exemplifies the crisis, her eyes sunken and bones prominent beneath her skin. Her family fled to Qardho after all their goats perished, her mother Najma recounted.

"I don’t know what to hope for, or see how we can get back to what we had," she said.