GENEVA, Feb 20 (KUNA) -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) issued a warning on Friday about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia as severe funding shortfalls threaten to bring life-saving food and nutrition programmes to an end within weeks.
This came during a press briefing in Geneva of WFP Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Ross Smith warning that a quarter of the population in Somalia around 4.4 million people face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse including nearly one million experiencing severe hunger.
Smith also added that nearly two million children are suffering from acute malnutrition among them more than 400,000 with severe acute malnutrition. Close to half a million people have been displaced in the past five months alone.
He stressed that Somalia is facing one of the "most complex hunger crise" in recent years driven by two consecutive failed rainy seasons ongoing conflict and declining humanitarian funding.
Smith stressed the urgent need for immediate humanitarian financing to ensure the continuation of WFP's life-saving operations warning that without immediate food support conditions will deteriorate rapidly particularly for women and children.
He added that the severe funding shortfall has already forced WFP to reduce the number of people receiving emergency food assistance from 2.2 million at the beginning of 2025 to just over 600,000 - equivalent to only one in seven people in need of food assistance to survive.
Nutrition programmes have also been scaled back from supporting nearly 400,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and children in October 2025 to just 90,000 in December.
Smith emphasized that the situation is worsening at an alarming pace with many families having lost their livelihoods and being pushed to the brink of famine particularly following the declaration of a national drought emergency that has led to severe water shortages widespread crop and livestock losses and large-scale displacement.
He noted that WFP is the largest humanitarian agency operating in Somalia and recalled that in 2022, with support from donors, partners and the government, the organization scaled up operations to reach record numbers of people in need, helping to avert famine at that time.
Smith underscored that WFP urgently requires 95 million dollars to continue supporting the most affected populations between March and August 2026 warning that the agency may be forced to suspend its humanitarian assistance by April if the required funding is not secured. (end) imk.aai