The World Problems Index

Humanitarian

← Back to the index
SomaliaHumanitarianNews-derivedmedium confidence

Somalia Drought and Child Malnutrition Crisis

Somalia's drought emergency is driving a sharp rise in severe child malnutrition, with admissions reportedly nearly tripling in six months.

Severity score

37.9

Serious · default weighting

Trajectory

Worsening

What this is

Somalia remains under a drought emergency declared in November 2025. Admissions for severe child malnutrition have reportedly nearly tripled over six months, signaling rapidly deteriorating food and health conditions.

The country narrowly averted famine in 2022, underscoring the risk posed by the renewed drought. The available headline does not provide a supported total for deaths or people affected.

Score breakdown

Loss of life

19

Direct and attributable mortality, normalised across annual and cumulative tolls.

Lives negatively impacted

50

People displaced, injured, food-insecure, exposed or otherwise materially harmed.

Financial cost

26

Direct damage, lost output and health-system spend attributable to the event.

Environmental impact

46

Emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss, contamination and irreversibility.

Trajectory

76

Whether the situation is escalating, and how much worse it is plausibly getting.

Recent coverage