(Adnkronos) – At least 55,000 girls and boys supported by Save the Children in Somalia will lose access to life-saving nutritional services by June, due to cuts in humanitarian aid that will force the closure of 121 assistance centers run by the Organization. This is according to a statement from Save the Children, the largest organization providing health and nutrition services to children in Somalia, assisting approximately 260,000 each year. The cuts to humanitarian aid announced at the beginning of 2025 will cause the interruption in June of services of more than a quarter (27%) of the health and nutritional facilities supported in the country, putting the lives of at least 55,000 children at risk.
Aid cuts, continued displacement due to attacks by armed groups, and below-average rainfall are worsening the humanitarian situation for children in the country. According to data from the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit, this year in Somalia 1.8 million children will face acute malnutrition and 479,000 severe acute malnutrition which, if left untreated, can be fatal. Baidoa, in southern Somalia, is particularly affected by drought and conflict and currently hosts around 800,000 internally displaced people. But unfortunately, it is also one of the areas where the impact of the cuts will force Save the Children to close all of its nutritional facilities.
Fatima, 25, lives in a displacement camp in Baidoa. She fled her village after a long drought damaged the family’s crops and killed their livestock, leaving her and her husband with no way to feed their children. Recently, a Save the Children worker diagnosed her one-year-old son, Fardowso, with severe acute malnutrition: the child received all the necessary treatment, medication and high-nutrient food at a Save the Children-supported center and is now starting to gain weight and recover. “If we couldn’t receive medicine and nutritional support here, we would have no choice but to helplessly watch our children die,” said Fatima. “There are no other services here, so we can only watch their condition gradually worsen.”
By the end of the rainy season, in June, it is expected that Save the Children-supported clinics in Baidoa will reach their limit. This is the time of year when hunger and malnutrition normally increase in Somalia, but with an 11% increase in the number of severely malnourished children compared to 2024, the facilities run by humanitarian organizations to treat them will decrease. Dr. Mustafa Mohammed works at a Save the Children-supported stabilization center in Baidoa, where children suffering from severe acute malnutrition are given hydrating drips and milk fortified with vitamins and a protein-rich peanut paste. Over 95% of children admitted to the center recover after treatment. But the number of families turning to it for care continues to increase, as other facilities have been forced to close. “If our center closes, children like these will be put in grave danger. There is nowhere else they can go,” Mohammed said.
“It’s frightening to imagine the impact of these aid cuts on Somalia just a few months away, in a country where communities know all too well what extreme hunger and even famine mean,” said Mohamud Mohamed Hassan, Save the Children’s Somalia Country Director. “In communities like Baidoa, we are doing everything we can to keep life-saving services and our nutritional programs open as long as possible, but we won’t be able to do it forever. If funding is not found, there will be deadly consequences for children, also because these cuts are combining with the effects of years of recurrent drought and political clashes. Failing to provide the funds that can help prevent extreme hunger is a political choice, but it must be changed before it is too late for millions of children in Somalia.”
Even before these latest aid cuts, the humanitarian response in Somalia has been chronically underfunded, while hunger has remained stubbornly high due to recurrent climate shocks, such as below-average rainfall. Save the Children has been working in Somalia and Somaliland since 1951 and has programs across the country supporting children’s health, education and food needs. Last year, the Organization reached 3.2 million people, including 1.9 million children.
