A severe malnutrition crisis is unfolding in Somalia's displacement camps, with médecins sans frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders) warning that roughly half of all children under five living in sites for displaced people in the country's southwest are now acutely malnourished. The medical charity says the situation is deteriorating rapidly under the combined pressure of prolonged drought, deepening food insecurity, and a significant reduction in international humanitarian funding.

Since the start of this year, MSF has screened more than 21,000 children under the age of five in and around Baidoa — a major city in the Bay region of southwestern Somalia that has long served as a hub for internally displaced people — finding acute malnutrition rates of approximately 50 percent. In response, the organisation has expanded its nutrition ward to accommodate a growing number of critically ill children. "It has not been an understatement when I say that a severe humanitarian emergency is unfolding right now in Baidoa and across the country," said Mitchell Sangma, MSF's medical coordinator in Somalia.

The scale of displacement driving this crisis is staggering. The United Nations reports that more than 500,000 Somalis were forced from their homes in just the first three months of 2026, with drought responsible for nine out of every ten displacements. MSF notes that around 80 percent of those displaced are women and children — among the most vulnerable to food insecurity and its health consequences. Families already weakened by years of conflict and repeated climate shocks are arriving at camps with little access to adequate food, clean water, or medical care.

Somalia is one of the countries most exposed to the effects of climate variability in the world, regularly cycling through droughts and floods that devastate agricultural livelihoods. Decades of conflict have further eroded the state's capacity to respond to emergencies, leaving international aid agencies as a primary lifeline for millions of people. Aid organisations warn that without a substantial increase in international support, rates of severe acute malnutrition and preventable child deaths will continue to climb in the months ahead.