The Food and Agriculture Organization in Somalia has warned that the country should brace itself for the possibility of a continued dry period until October, followed by an elevated risk of extensive flooding during the October–December Deyr season associated with a likely El Niño event.

Sahro Mohamed Osman, 29, pushes a heavy wheelbarrow laden with earth. For three months, she has worked six hours a day at her village’s water catchment, helping expand water access for her community while earning an income to support her family.

“My happiest days are when I am working at the job site,” she says. “Because I am working to provide for my family.”

As Somalia continues efforts to strengthen peace, resilience, and inclusive development, investing in young people remains essential. In fragile and conflict-affected contexts, youth are not only among the most affected by unemployment, exclusion, and limited opportunities, they are also powerful agents of peacebuilding, innovation, and community transformation. 

For Abdullahi Ali Abdi Aden, farming is the only life he knows. At 45, Abdullahi supports a household of twelve in Suuskey village, near Baidoa in Somalia’s Southwest state. Each season, he plants maize, wheat, and beans, relying on rainfall to grow his crops. What the land produces feeds his family. When the rains fail, life begins to unravel.

It’s not uncommon for beekeeper Osman Hasan Mohamed – and his teenaged daughter Aisha -- to be stung as many 20 to 30 times a day as they tend to their hives near the Somali town of Baidoa.

That is tough in a part of Somalia where pain killers are not readily available.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned today of a rapidly intensifying hunger emergency in Somalia that is pushing 6 million people – 31 percent of the population – into critical levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) between April and June 2026. This now includes one of the worst malnutrition crises in the world impacting approximately 1.9 million children, of whom 493,000 face severe acute malnutrition, who are 12 times at higher risk of death compared to well-nourished children.

Every morning, Hawo Mohamed Mukhtar wakes to the same question: will her five children eat today?
Across Somalia, recurrent drought has been devastating rural livelihoods. Farming and pastoral communities see their water sources shrink, livestock perish, and food production collapse. Suuskey village is near Baidoa in Southwest state. A recent drought there has hit already vulnerable households.

Tuna has the potential to play a critically important role in food security and economic development, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the government have said. “Tuna represents more than just a fish; it serves as an essential source of income, nutrition, and economic potential for coastal populations.” FAO Fisheries Officer Abdikariim Mogeh said.

The humanitarian crisis confronting Somalia has not abated with the country indirectly impacted by conflict in the Middle East, prolonged drought and forecasted El Niño floods later this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

Sargoon Ali, 70, has spent a lifetime attuned to the rhythms of life in the Somali countryside where survival all too often depends on access to water. In Xaaxi village of Somaliland’s Odweyne district, she rears goats and sheep that, when conditions allow, graze freely in open pastures. Unlike many pastoralists across the country, Sargoon is also a farmer. On her small plot of land, she grows cowpeas, sorghum, watermelon, and tomatoes.

 

In Sogsogley, Borama, 55-year-old Mohamed Elmi has transformed his livelihood over the past three years. A father of 11 supporting a household of 13, Elmi long relied on farming and livestock to provide for his family. For decades, he cultivated sorghum, maize, and vegetables while tending a modest herd of camels, cattle, and goats. Yet despite his hard work, making ends meet was a constant struggle.

 

FAO in Somalia recently said farewell to Senior Programme Officer and de facto Deputy Representative Ezana Kassa, who has left us after seven years to become the Representative in Uganda. Ezana’s time in the country was a defining moment in his professional life, marked by profound challenges and important milestones. We caught up with him just before he left Mogadishu to ask a few questions about his time in Somalia.

 

Faduma Macaan Cali, 72, was born near the town of Jowhar in Somalia's Hirshabelle state. Like so many other Somalis in rural parts of the country, much of her life has been determined by the availability, access or otherwise of water.

For Fadumo, International Women's Day highlights the vital contribution of women in Somalia’s economic development. The day recognises the struggle of women to balance childcare and leadership roles. “It represents recognition of the hard work and resilience of women like us who often work behind the scenes,” she said.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Somalia has welcomed a lifesaving SEK 20 million (USD 2.17 million) contribution from Sweden. The resources will be used to scale up anticipatory and early humanitarian actions for drought affected communities across Somalia. It will enable FAO to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable households as the country grapples with a deadly drought.

Nearly 6.5 million Somalis face high levels of hunger, and more than 1.8 million children face acute malnutrition due to worsening drought, the Somali government and UN agencies have warned in a new report. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report indicates that a third of the population – 6.5 million people – are expected to face crisis levels of hunger or worse (IPC 3 and 4) by March, an increase of 1.7 million people since January. 

Captain James Kariuki and Senior Operator Leonard Mutungi have taken more than 23,000 aerial photos over a 3,000 square kilometre in the Shabelle region of Somalia.

It is a job often hampered by poor weather, irregular GPS signals and the slim chance of being shot at by unfriendly forces on the ground.  

An FAO report says that upfront payments ahead of an expected drought significantly improves household purchasing power, food security, and crop protection. The report says that such payments have played a crucial role in offsetting the suffering caused by drought. In 2024, FAO delivered anticipatory cash transfers to 2 400 households in Somalia, triggered by early warning information from the Somalia Water and Land Information Management (SWALIM), ahead of peak drought conditions.

The entrance of the Faculty of Agriculture in Amoud University is a hive of activity on what, in Somalia, is the closest you can get to a cool winter afternoon. Students and university staff are collecting dried sorghum, threshing it, and sifting it to separate the grain from chaff, dirt, and other impurities. Nearby, others are putting the grain in marked bags, to be weighed and recorded.

New data compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that the 2025-26 drought is intensifying rapidly and is likely to be as severe and widespread as previous major droughts of 2022, 2017 and 2011.