In November 2025, Somalia officially declared a national drought emergency — a dire move that underscores the severity of the humanitarian crisis unfolding across the country.
🌍 What’s Driving the Emergency
- The drought comes after successive failed rainy seasons across northern, central and parts of southern Somalia — leaving pasturelands parched, water sources dried up, and agricultural production decimated.
- Water points and wells that communities depended on have dried up. Traditional pastoral and farming livelihoods — the backbone of rural Somalia — are collapsing, pushing families into a desperate search for food and water.
⚠️ The Human Cost: Hunger, Malnutrition and Displacement
- The drought, combined with rising food prices and ongoing conflict, has put at least 4.4 million Somalis at risk of acute food insecurity by early 2025.
- Distressingly, children are among the hardest hit. The number of under-five children expected to suffer from acute malnutrition could reach 1.85 million as food shortages deepen.
- Aid agencies warn that only a fraction of those in need are receiving support. In many areas, families are reducing meals or going for days without adequate food — a sign of a crisis swiftly approaching famine-levels.
🆘 The Emergency Declaration: What It Means
By declaring a drought emergency, the Somali government and humanitarian partners acknowledge the severity of the crisis and are seeking urgent international support.
The declaration aims to mobilise resources for immediate food, water, health and nutrition assistance — especially for the most vulnerable: children, internally displaced persons, pastoralists, and poor farming households.
🧭 Why This Is Also a Climate & Governance Issue
- Somalia’s recurring droughts highlight how climate shocks — erratic rainfall, drying water sources — are pushing communities to the brink. The 2025 emergency follows closely on the 2022 crisis that nearly triggered a famine.
- Combined with conflict, high food prices, and reduced humanitarian funding, droughts are becoming more than just natural disasters: they are structural threats to food security, stability, and livelihoods in the Horn of Africa.
📢 What Needs to Happen — Urgent Call to Action
- Rapid humanitarian response: Food aid, clean water, nutrition for children, healthcare support must be scaled up immediately. Delay could lead to avoidable deaths and long-term suffering.
- International support & funding: With already depleted humanitarian budgets and reduced assistance reach, Somalia needs renewed global support and funding to avert a full-blown famine.
- Long-term resilience building: Emergency aid is necessary, but not enough. Investments must be made in climate-resilient agriculture, drought-resistant water infrastructure, early-warning systems, and social protection for vulnerable communities.
- Peace and stability: Conflict continues to complicate aid delivery. A stable, secure environment is essential to ensure humanitarian assistance reaches those most in need.
💔 Final Word — Time to Act Before It’s Too Late
The drought emergency in Somalia isn’t just a headline — it’s a warning. When water wells dry and fields turn to dust, entire communities suffer. Right now, millions of Somalis are facing hunger, thirst, displacement — and for many, the difference between survival and tragedy is aid.
If the international community fails to respond swiftly and decisively, what we’re witnessing today could spiral into one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region’s recent history.
We must act — before the drought steals more lives.
📚 References
- Somalia: Drought, conflict and high food prices risk pushing 4.4 million people into hunger — joint statement by the government and UN agencies. FAOHome+1
- Millions in Somalia at risk of worsening hunger as funding shortfalls force major cuts to aid — World Food Programme (WFP) report, October 2025. World Food Program USA+1
- Nearly a quarter of Somalia’s population face acute hunger; 1.85 million children under five at risk of acute malnutrition — recent WFP warning. A News+1
- Humanitarian crisis deepens: drought-induced food, water, and health shortages push vulnerable communities toward disaster — International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) emergency appeal, October 2025. IFRC
