-
Current Requirements (US$)$1.42 billion
Crisis overview
Somalia’s humanitarian crisis is among the world's most complex, marked by cycles of internal conflict and climate shocks, that drive displacement and undermine development efforts. Climate change exacerbates Somalia’s vulnerability, with altered rainfall patterns leading to both droughts and floods; Somalia’s population is still recovering from the effects of the devastating 2020-2023 drought and the 2023 Deyr (October to December) floods that resulted in US$176.1 million in damages across the 16 districts assessed in the rapid post-disaster needs assessment.
Rain-induced flooding during the Gu (April to June) 2024 season destroyed shelters, agricultural land, and schools, and disrupted water and sanitation services, leading to surges in cholera and acute watery diarrhoea. At the same time, the early cessation of rainfall in May 2024 negatively impacted national crop production levels. With a 70 per cent likelihood of La Niňa conditions from the last quarter of 2024 through February 2025, southern and central regions and Puntland anticipate hotter and drier conditions. The outlook for 2025 is bleak if these conditions persist. Anticipated below-average Deyr rains in 2024, critical for crop production, will aggravate food insecurity and exacerbate drinking water scarcity for approximately 300,000 people across 10 districts in central and southern states. Approximately 1.6 million children under the age of five are expected to experience acute malnutrition between August 2024 and July 2025, with more than 400,000 facing severe acute malnutrition.
The situation is compounded by widespread conflict and insecurity that affects some 4.5 million people in 20 districts and poses significant challenges to humanitarian access. Ongoing military offensives by government forces against Al-Shabaab, as well as an escalation of clan violence since June 2024 routinely trigger population movements; over seventy clan clashes were recorded in 2024. Between January and October 2024, close to 395,000 people were forcibly displaced, and often moved towards urban centers such as Baidoa, Kismayo and Banadir. Conflict is one of the key drivers of displacement. More than 11,000 protection incidents linked to displacement were recorded between January and October 2024.
Beletweyne, Hirshabelle State, Somalia
Heavy rains in the Ethiopian highlands flooded farmlands in villages around Beletweyne district in September 2024. This flood-prone area has experienced severe events in recent years.
HIWA/Hussein GureThe cumulative effect of both violence and climate shocks continues to drive displacement, destroy livelihoods, leaving millions of people in urgent need of assistance. The living conditions for internally displaced people (IDPs) are extremely difficult. In addition to limited services and other challenges in displacement sites, between January and September 2024, over 150,000 IDPs were forcibly evicted due to ambiguous land ownership and a lack of legal protection, a figure projected to exceed 200,000 by the end of 2024.
Children face severe impacts from various shocks and make up more than 60 per cent of displaced in Somalia. There are 4.5 million out-of-school children in Somalia (56 per cent), with enrollment rates particularly low among displaced children. Children face significant risks, including recruitment by armed groups, killing, maiming, and abduction. By August 2024, 10,000 unaccompanied and separated children and 1,940 grave child rights violations were recorded. These included 370 children recruited by parties to the conflict, marking a 20 per cent increase from the same period in 2023.
Women remain extremely vulnerable, facing persistent discrimination and exclusion from assistance, especially those from minority clans. Rising costs of basic goods and economic disruptions are pushing families—especially women-headed households—toward negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and transactional sex. Funding shortfalls have restricted access to specialized protection services in 2024.
Mogadishu, Banadir, Somalia
Farxiya and her one-year-old son Abdirahman at Banadir Hospital during a UNICEF visit in April. The child, treated for cholera, has shown marked improvement.
UNICEFIn 2025, 5.98 million people will require humanitarian assistance in Somalia, down 13 per cent from 6.9 million in 2024. This reduction largely reflects a stricter scope-setting approach, identifying 9.2 million people, or 48 per cent of the population, affected by multiple shocks, allowing for a more focused analysis. In addition, Deyr 2023 and Gu 2024 rainfall helped replenish groundwater sources which, coupled with investments in sustainable water supply systems, contributed to a decrease of humanitarian needs. However, these gains are at risk, as funding shortages have led to reduced and suspended assistance.
Only the Education and Food Security Clusters report rising needs. For education, this is due to an increased rate of out-of-school children in 2024 compared to 2023, and the inclusion of children aged 5 in the 2025 analysis. For food security, the increase reflects worsening food security linked to forecasted La Niña conditions for the Deyr 2024, essential for crop production in 2025.
Jowhar, Hirshabelle State, Somalia
Two women from Maandheere collect water together, showing resilience and unity amid daily challenges.
IOM/Abdirahman MahamudResponse priorities in 2025
In 2025, 4.6 million people will be targeted for humanitarian assistance, an 11 per cent decrease from 5.2 million people in 2024. This reduction is in line with the reduced People in Need and follows similar boundary setting parameters as the previous year. The expected funding environment for 2025 was mapped against operational capacity and current response levels to inform boundary setting. Funding shortages and significant access constraints hindered the 2024 response, with humanitarians projecting to meet less than half of the 2024 HNRP target by year-end. This underscores the importance of realistic targets to provide lifesaving and life-sustaining assistance to people in need.
Severity of needs is one of the main parameters for targeting. The Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) Area of Responsibility (AoR) target increased considerably from 616,000 in 2024 to 918,819 in 2025. Persistent, multiple shocks exacerbated HLP needs, with forced evictions severely undermining humanitarian efforts, through the destruction of critical infrastructure, including schools, water points, protection sites and health centers. By August, forced evictions were estimated to have impacted over US$3.5 million worth of humanitarian investments. The 2025 focus will pivot towards scaling up eviction-prevention strategies to address these far-reaching risks.
Doolow, Jubaland State, Somalia
In Doolow, cyclical drought, flooding and conflict drives waves of displacement impacting communities across southern Somalia. Doolow hosts five IDP sites, primarily sheltering women and children. Here in Qansaxely site, women engage in agricultural activities that are helping transform agri-food systems and strengthen community resilience.
UNIn 2025, humanitarians will expand on the Integrated Response Framework and area-based coordination mechanisms, that decentralize coordination and bring the response closer to affected people. This approach will strengthen the timely provision of an integrated, first-line response for newly displaced people and newly accessible areas, addressing long-standing and systemic issues of a supply-driven, fragmented response. Integrating nutrition with health, WASH, and protection initiatives, for instance, will improve overall health outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Some clusters set additional parameters to ensure the targeting of people in need in hard-to-reach districts, reinforcing the humanitarian community’s commitment to address severe access constraints and deliver a frontline response. Aside from the sobering funding outlook, rigorous prioritization contributed to reductions in target numbers. The Protection Cluster for instance, will focus its interventions strictly on conflict affected areas such as Jubaland, Puntland and Galmudug States.
The transition from the African Union Transition Mission to the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in 2025 has the potential to shift current security dynamics, requiring close monitoring, flexible access strategies, and concerted efforts to maintain and extend humanitarian access.
The humanitarian response in Somalia is informed by risks, including drought and conflict. As a La Niňa event risks a relapse into drought-like conditions, the humanitarian response will need to anticipate needs, invest in anticipatory action. Strategic partnerships and humanitarian-development collaboration will be pivotal in preventing future skyrocketing of humanitarian needs.
Mataban, Hirshabelle State, Somalia
Mahad, a farmer in Mataban, restores productivity to his land after receiving training from IOM.
IOMFinancial requirements
In 2025, financial requirements have decreased by 10 per cent from last year, from $1.6 billion to $1.43 billion, reflecting reductions in the people in need and target numbers. Integrated response provision planning further contributed to reducing the financial requirements.
Evolution of the humanitarian response
22-Jan-2026
Evolution of the humanitarian response
| Year | Type | People in need | People targeted | Requirements ($) | Funding ($) | % Funded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 |
6 million
|
4.6 million
|
$1.42 billion
|
$387.2 million
|
27.2%
|
|
| 2024 |
6.9 million
|
5.2 million
|
$1.59 billion
|
$916 million
|
57.8%
|
|
| 2023 |
8.3 million
|
7.6 million
|
$2.60 billion
|
$1.23 billion
|
47.5%
|
|
| 2022 |
7.8 million
|
7.6 million
|
$2.27 billion
|
$2.10 billion
|
92.4%
|
|
| 2021 |
5.9 million
|
4 million
|
$1.09 billion
|
$862.3 million
|
79%
|
|
| 2020 |
5.2 million
|
3 million
|
$1.01 billion
|
$810.9 million
|
80.3%
|
|
| 2019 |
4.2 million
|
3.4 million
|
$1.08 billion
|
$887.7 million
|
82.4%
|
|
| 2018 |
5.4 million
|
4.7 million
|
$1.54 billion
|
$932.3 million
|
60.4%
|
|
| 2017 |
HRP
|
|
|
$1.51 billion
|
$1.04 billion
|
68.8%
|
| 2016 |
HRP
|
|
|
$885.2 million
|
$506.9 million
|
57.3%
|
2024 in review: Response highlights and consequences of inaction
Response highlights
Flood
The 2024 Somalia HNRP integrated anticipatory action for predictable shocks into the response planning for the first time. This allowed partners to have the necessary resources ready when needed, and to pre-position supplies and services in regional supply hubs to successfully support thousands of people at risk from both riverine and flash floods during the Gu season. The Logistics Cluster played a key role in supporting humanitarian partners by facilitating the transport of 27 boats to and from 10 flood-affected areas. The WASH Cluster supported thousands of displaced communities from nine pre-positioned supply hubs.
Coordination
Moreover, coordination at district level was further strengthened and was pivotal in responding to displacement due to clan fighting in Luuq. An area-based approach in Banadir and Baidoa saw a shift from site-level to catchment-level management and a progressive shift of the camp management response to the most highly populated IDP sites, optimizing service delivery.
Acute watery diarrhea and cholera
Acute watery diarrhea and cholera soared in 2024. The humanitarian response was able to contain these in most areas due to effective inter-cluster coordination efforts—especially between the health and WASH sectors and the Ministry of Health (MoH)—and donor support. This was a critical factor in the overall reduction of acute malnutrition prevalence, as well as in lowering morbidity and mortality rates in Somalia, particularly among children under five years of age.
Humanitarian assistance
Despite significant challenges, the Shelter Cluster supported close to 940,000 people with kits; however, 76 per cent of people received only partial assistance, often only one of the seven kit items. Despite funding constraints, an estimated 2.3 million people were assisted with emergency humanitarian food and livelihoods assistance in 2024. Reducing the response from 12 to 3 months due to limited funds led to food consumption gaps for the remaining nine months. An estimated 245,000 children received education in emergencies assistance.
Consequences of inaction
Low levels of funding and challenging humanitarian access have led to significant reductions of assistance and services.
Health facilities and learning spaces closure
In the first half of 2024, 116 health facilities closed due to funding shortages, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of essential health and nutrition services. In addition, 70,000 children risk losing access to education as 340 learning spaces face closure by the end of the year.
Protection
This highlights how vulnerable groups often bear the brunt of assistance scale-downs and suspensions, which increase protection risks and have far-reaching, multisectoral implications. For instance, the irregular presence of site management teams led to unreported urgent and critical needs in WASH, health and nutrition. Inadequate shelter response forced prolonged use of makeshift shelters, raising risks of gender-based violence (GBV), while roughly 825,000 vulnerable women and girls lost access to specialized GBV services and the protection desk response reduced by 95 per cent. An additional 1.4 million people missed emergency shelter and NFIs and 2.1 million people did not receive multi-purpose cash assistance, likely impairing their ability to meet their critical needs and build resilience.
Humanitarian access
Poor funding and access challenges often interplay. Insecurity and poor road conditions forced humanitarians to rely on air transport for aid delivery, limiting cargo volumes and driving up costs. Extreme access challenges in multiple districts across Lower and Middle Shabelle and in Middle Juba regions hindered emergency food and livelihood assistance. Unless funding gaps and access barriers are addressed, the lives of 1.6 million children under age five who are projected to face acute malnutrition in 2025 will be at grave risk.
References
- Somalia: IPC Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Analysis (July - December 2024) Published on September 23, 2024 - Somalia | ReliefWeb
- Explosive Hazards AoR also reported an increased PiN (overall Protection PiN decreased), which can be traced back to the use of explosives in military offensives between Somalia Security Forces and Al-Shabaab, including in newly accessible areas.
- Humanitarian actors will target populations in severity 4 (none in 5) and 30% of severity 3 (excluding FSC), applying an 80% PiN target cap.