Think biG!

Urge- DevWire

News. Analysis. Events

A weekly development news platform published by UrgeDevWire, produced by Urge Communications. Covering Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and the wider East African region.

Urge Development Brief Desk | East Africa. Urge- DevWire

MOGADISHU — 7 May 2026 (updated June 2026)

Somalia's humanitarian crisis worsened significantly in the first half of 2026 as drought, reduced humanitarian funding, and the economic impact of conflict in the Middle East deepened food insecurity across the country. The Federal Government of Somalia and the United Nations jointly warned that 6.5 million people, approximately one in three Somalis, face crisis-level hunger or worse, with nearly two million facing emergency-level hunger. The Deyr season cereal harvest in southern Somalia in the 2025 season was 83 percent below the long-term average.

WFP Assistant Executive Director Matthew Hollingworth stated that WFP can currently assist only one in ten people in urgent need due to funding shortfalls. An additional 131 million dollars is required to sustain WFP's support through October 2026, with emergency assistance facing suspension by July absent new commitments. More than 200,000 people were displaced in the first quarter of 2026, with over 60 percent attributed to drought. Fuel costs have risen by 150 percent and food commodity prices by 20 to 30 percent, linked to Middle East conflict disruption of supply chains. In 2026, WFP provided emergency cash-based transfers to more than 380,000 people through government-led systems. The Somalia Disaster Management Agency Commissioner Mohamud Moallim Abdulle called on international partners, the Somali diaspora, businesses, and civil society to scale up support. The funding requirement to provide life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable in Somalia in 2026 is 852 million dollars.

Source: WFP Somalia