WFP’s April funding deadline arrives with Somalia’s hunger crisis unresolved and assistance at historic lows
Somalia entered April 2026 at the edge of the precipice the WFP had identified in February. Assistance that reached 2.2 million people a year ago now reaches fewer than one in ten who need it. The gap between need and response has rarely been wider.
Somalia’s emergency food crisis has deepened after the World Food Programme’s April funding deadline passed, forcing major cuts to aid just as hunger and malnutrition remain severe.
The WFP has reduced the number of people receiving emergency food assistance from 2.2 million at the start of 2025 to about 600,000, while nutrition support for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children has fallen from nearly 400,000 in October 2025 to 90,000. The agency warns that coverage could drop further to 350,000 later this year without more funding.
The scale of need remains acute. At least 4.4 million people, or about a quarter of Somalia’s population, face crisis-level food insecurity or worse, including nearly one million in severe hunger. WFP says 1.84 million children under five are likely to suffer acute malnutrition in 2026, including almost half a million in its most severe form.
Somalia declared a national drought emergency in November 2025 after two failed rainy seasons, compounding years of conflict and weak institutions. The WFP says it urgently needs $95 million to keep supporting the most food-insecure people through August.
The wider funding collapse is also part of the problem. The IMF has said the drop in aid to Sub-Saharan Africa in 2025 was structural, not temporary, with bilateral assistance falling sharply across the region. Somalia is among the countries most exposed to that shift because its food system is already under pressure from climate shocks and insecurity.
The United States, traditionally one of WFP’s biggest donors, suspended aid in January after a warehouse dispute at Mogadishu port before resuming limited distribution later that month. Even so, the restored support has not replaced the broader loss in humanitarian funding.
With most regions hit by three failed rainy seasons and the lowest seasonal crop harvest in 30 years, Somalia’s crisis is moving closer to emergency. The donor response in the coming weeks will help determine whether conditions stabilise or worsen further.