4.4 million people in Somalia are at risk of hunger amidst unprecedented cuts in humanitarian funding

Predictive models indicate that up to 4.4 million people – a quarter of the population – could face hunger in Somalia by next month due to a combination of drought, conflict and high food prices. This comes less than two years after the longest drought episode in recent history brought the country to the brink of famine.

Communities in Somalia are reeling from one crisis to the next, with little respite. Further suffering and loss of life must urgently be prevented through an adequate humanitarian response.

While the needs continue to grow, humanitarian organisations, including DRC, are struggling to continue the delivery of life-saving assistance due to unprecedented cuts in humanitarian funding. The cost of the overall humanitarian response needed in Somalia, estimated at $1.42 billion, is currently only 12.4 percent funded.

The United States Government’s decision to terminate nearly all of its aid contracts in Somalia, including those supporting life-saving assistance, threatens to exacerbate suffering across the country. USAID was the country’s largest donor for food assistance, nutrition, health, water and sanitation, and for management of camps for internally displaced persons. DRC provided critical assistance to 400,000 people a year with U.S. funding, including camp coordination and management, sanitation, protection and economic recovery support.

“We managed to avoid famine in 2022 due to a large-scale humanitarian response and the efficiency of the early response mechanisms. I am afraid the current decline in humanitarian funding will not enable us to respond at scale, with tragic effects on food security, displacement, conflict and stability,” warns Filip Lozinski, DRC’s Country Director in Somalia.

DRC remains committed to delivering principled, impartial, and effective humanitarian assistance and calls on the international community, the Somali diaspora and the private sector to support the scale up of the response.

DRC urges other existing donors to Somalia to implement any emergency measures available to them to minimize the immediate and long-term consequences of these sudden funding cuts.