A Silent Emergency: How Aid Cuts Are Endangering Somalia’s Children

Behind the numbers lies a worsening human crisis no one seems to be watching closely enough

At a modest health centre in Baidoa, Somalia, a nurse gently squeezes vaccine drops into the mouth of a crying baby. The child’s mother, Sahro Ali, holds him close, murmuring reassurance. She is not just here for treatment. She is here for survival.

“We need the vaccination to be increased, and we also want medicine,” she says. “Children suffer every problem that arises if they miss vaccination and medicine… they die.”

In Somalia today, scenes like this are heartbreakingly common and growing more urgent by the day. Amid deepening drought, rising malnutrition, and increasing child illness, aid agencies are warning of a disaster in motion. A disaster made worse by a painful truth: international aid is being cut.

Clinics under pressure, children on the edge

At the Bullo-Jadid health centre, supported by USAID and Save the Children, Dr Maryan Mohamed and her team see over 60 patients every day. Most are mothers with children in tow, many of whom have walked long distances from remote areas and refugee camps for a shot at medicine, vaccines, or nutrition packets.

“We fear diseases will increase and spread if vaccinations run short,” says Dr Mohamed. “Whooping cough, polio… if they are not immunised, the diseases will spread.”

Vaccines are not the only lifeline under threat. Nutrition support, too, is in crisis. One mother, Qadro Hassan Abdullah, had come to the clinic seeking nutrition biscuits. Her child, visibly underweight, was tested and confirmed to be malnourished. Thankfully, she received high-nutrition cream. But with cuts looming, not every parent may be as lucky.

Image 1: Pexels

Why the aid cuts now?

Somalia is a country reeling from climate-driven drought, economic hardship, and long-standing political instability. Millions have lost livestock, farmlands, and incomes. Entire communities have become dependent on aid just to feed their children.

Yet now, at a time when the need is peaking, support is shrinking.

Moazzam Malik, CEO of Save the Children UK, warns that cuts to humanitarian assistance are putting thousands of vulnerable children in direct danger. “They face desperate needs with drought and climate change impacts,” he explains. “And now they are suffering the impact of aid cuts.”

This means fewer vaccines, fewer nutrition centres, and fewer health workers in a country that can afford none of it.

A warning the world cannot afford to ignore

Health experts say the combination of vaccine shortages and food insecurity could spark surging malnutrition, preventable disease outbreaks, and avoidable child deaths. Somalia is already one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child. Aid cuts will only compound that.

While global attention shifts elsewhere, what’s happening in Somalia is not just a funding issue; it is a matter of life and death.

The international community, especially major donor countries, must urgently rethink their priorities. Children should not pay the price for budget cuts or political fatigue.

Because for mothers like Sahro and Qadro, the stakes are not abstract. They are real, daily, and devastating. And their children are running out of time.

Also read: Gauteng’s Power Cuts Continue: Eskom Load Reduction Schedule for the Week

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Source: SABC News

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