August 26, 2026 – Right now, CARE is witnessing a catastrophic hunger and climate crisis in Somalia, and it is mothers, pregnant women, and young children who are suffering the most – millions of them. Four failed rainy seasons have pushed millions of people to the absolute edge, and upcoming El Niño floods threaten to wash away what little they have left.
As funding dries up, the reality on the ground is heartbreaking. Across the country, mothers are walking for hours in extreme heat with sick, hungry babies on their backs, only to arrive at clinics and find locked gates. Ambulances are parked without fuel. Children who need life-saving therapeutic food are going without it because distribution centres have closed, stripped of the funding and supplies needed to continue serving their communities.
In Jubaland alone, CARE has been forced to scale back support from 12 health facilities to just one remaining facility in Kismayo, and we have lost 20 frontline health workers from our response due to funding shortfalls. With fewer resources and higher demand, at the few clinics still open, our health workers treat severely malnourished children every single day, with cases tripling over the last year. Tragically, in some areas, children are already dying from hunger before we can reach them.
Despite these severe cuts, CARE Somalia staff are working alongside our local partners and with the Ministry of Health to try and meet the overwhelming level of needs. Our top priority is ensuring families get basic water and food, as well as keeping our remaining clinics and nutrition centers running, delivering babies, and treating severe malnutrition. But with our response less than 20 percent funded, critical health, nutrition and food assistance services are being scaled back just as needs are set to rise. This is not an abstract funding shortfall, it means some of the most vulnerable children will be unable to access lifesaving treatment and, as a result, many will not survive. We cannot turn our backs while mothers and children pay the ultimate price.
For media inquiries, please email usa.media@care.org or contact Pauline Hurungudo, CARE East and Southern Africa, Regional Communications Advisor, email: Pauline.Hurungudo@care.org