Category: News & Stories

Somalia is facing a dire malnutrition crisis that has been worsened by prolonged droughts, ongoing conflict, economic instability, and a fragile healthcare system. The Baidoa and Mudug regions, where Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works, are examples of the crisis unfolding across the country, with thousands of children at immediate risk of severe malnutrition and its life-threatening consequences.

Chronic funding shortfalls have crippled humanitarian efforts, forcing vital nutrition programs to scale back or close. The looming threat of a La Niña-driven drought in 2025 could push an already vulnerable population to the brink. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is urgently calling on donors and humanitarian organisations to take immediate action to prevent widespread suffering, as the consequences could be catastrophic.

A father’s last hope to save his children

Kalimow Mohamed Nur had no choice but to take a desperate gamble. With his twin sons weak from hunger, their tiny bodies frail from repeated bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea, he borrowed enough money for a single day’s journey—an amount he would take months to earn—and set out on a gruelling trip to Baidoa. The road was long, the heat relentless, but the promise of free medical care at Bay Regional Hospital was his last hope.

“I had to take a loan of about $130 and travel 300 kilometres to Baidoa to find free medical care,” says Kalimow, whose twin sons received treatment for severe acute malnutrition at the Bay Regional Hospital supported by MSF. “They were so small, and we could barely afford enough food. They kept falling ill.”

Kalimow’s story—marked by poverty, distance, and the absence of local services—echoes the harsh realities that prevent countless families from accessing care. In Somalia, life-saving treatment has turned into a privilege accessible to only a few.

Malnutrition has become a year-round crisis in parts of Somalia

In Baidoa and Mudug, malnutrition has become a persistent, year-round crisis, not a seasonal challenge. “We’re seeing high malnutrition rates, not just during the usual lean seasons,” says Jarmilla Kliescikova, MSF’s medical coordinator in Somalia. “This is a chronic crisis that demands sustained intervention.”

In 2024, MSF teams treated 18,066 severely acute malnourished children across its projects in Somalia, a significant increase from the previous year. In Mudug, admissions to outpatient nutrition programs surged by 250 per cent, driven by both rising need and expanded outreach efforts. Baidoa also saw a rise throughout 2024 in admissions, underscoring the growing desperation of families seeking care. Yet, these efforts barely scratch the surface. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), an estimated 1.7 million children faced acute malnutrition in 2024, including 430,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition. MSF’s interventions, while critical, reached only about one per cent of the total malnourished population, highlighting the overwhelming vast scale of the crisis and the pressing need for broader support.

Conflicts and climate change have driven massive displacement, forcing people into regions with already scarce resources. Repeated droughts have devastated agriculture, leaving families who once depended on farming and livestock unable to sustain themselves. In the displacement sites, the prevalence of severe and moderate malnutrition is alarmingly high, while overstretched health centres struggle to cope.

Funding gaps are forcing critical programs to scale down

Adding to the crisis, funding shortages have dealt a devastating blow to the humanitarian response. According to UNOCHA, only 56 per cent of Somalia’s humanitarian funding needs were met in 2022—a figure that plummeted to just 40 per cent by 2024. In Baidoa for example, several nutrition programs have scaled down since 2023, and across both regions, essential services like therapeutic feeding centres and primary healthcare are being reduced or discontinued.

“The closure of these programs has left a devastating gap,” says Mohammed Ali Omer, MSF’s Head of Programs in Somalia. “Children in desperate need of life-saving therapeutic food are being turned away. And only a few communities benefit from vaccinations leaving them vulnerable to preventable diseases leading to vicious cycle of malnutrition. This is not just a crisis—it’s a catastrophe unfolding in real time.”

As Somalia struggles with ongoing dry spells, an even greater threat looms on the horizon: a La Niña-driven drought expected in 2025. La Niña is a climate phenomenon that cools ocean surface temperatures and disrupts global weather patterns, often leading to reduced rainfall in East Africa. With water sources depleted, and food production crippled by previous droughts, the impact could be catastrophic forcing more families from their homes and driving malnutrition rates even higher. As droughts become more frequent and severe, the window for recovery shrinks, while soaring food prices push survival further out of reach for the most vulnerable.

A looming crisis that the world still has a chance to prevent

Without immediate and sustained support, thousands of children face not only starvation but also weakened immunity, increased vulnerability to diseases, and irreversible developmental harm. The healthcare system, already struggling under relentless demand, risks total collapse as outbreaks and complications surge. MSF urgently calls on donors and governments to act now—before the 2025 drought strikes. There is an urgent need to scale up nutrition treatment, expand food distribution, and strengthen healthcare services to save lives while there is still time.

“Humanitarian assistance in Somalia is already dangerously low, and now, with reports of further funding cuts—including reductions in U.S. support—the situation will only worsen, putting more lives at risk,” says Mohammed Ali Omer. “The cuts to the nutrition programmes are coming at the worst possible time. Malnutrition rates are soaring, displacement is rising, and the need for aid has never been greater. Reducing support now is not just irresponsible—it’s deadly. The time to act is now. For the children of Baidoa and Mudug, every moment counts in giving them a chance to survive.”

NEW YORK, March 13, 2025—Christopher Lockyear, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), briefed the United Nations Security Council today on the humanitarian catastrophe caused by war in Sudan, calling for an end to violence against civilians and a new commitment to deliver lifesaving aid.

The war in Sudan is above all a “war on people,” Lockyear said. The Sudanese Armed Forces have repeatedly and indiscriminately bombed densely populated areas. The Rapid Support Forces and allied militias have unleashed a campaign of brutality, marked by systematic sexual violence, abductions, mass killings, the looting of humanitarian aid, and the occupation of medical facilities. Both sides have laid siege to towns, destroyed vital civilian infrastructure, and blocked humanitarian aid.

MSF provides medical care in 11 of Sudan’s states, on both sides of the conflict, according to humanitarian principles. MSF teams in Sudan have warned of alarming levels of malnutrition in many areas, while infectious and vaccine-preventable diseases are rising. The coming rainy season underlines the urgency of ensuring that people in war-torn areas receive food and medical supplies.

MSF’s message to the Council is that the war in Sudan cannot continue to be waged with shameless disregard for civilian lives. After nearly two years, the international response has been far too limited due to obstructions by the warring parties and a lack of accountability, resources and leadership.

“While statements are made in this chamber, civilians remain unseen, unprotected, bombed, besieged, raped, displaced, deprived of food, of medical care, of dignity,” Lockyear said. “The humanitarian response falters, crippled by bureaucracy, by insecurity, by hesitation, and by what threatens to become the largest divestment in the history of humanitarian aid.”

Lockyear called instead for a new commitment to protect civilians and meet humanitarian needs.

“The crisis in Sudan demands a fundamental shift away from the failed approaches of the past,” he said. “Millions of lives depend on it.”

JERUSALEM – Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the Israeli-imposed siege on the Gaza Strip, Palestine, which is depriving people of basic services and critical supplies, including access to water by cutting electricity supply on 9 March.  Israeli authorities have instrumentalised humanitarian needs by using it as a bargaining chip, such as cutting the electricity supply to the Strip and preventing all aid from entering. This policy, which amounts to collective punishment, must be immediately stopped. MSF calls on Israeli authorities to respect international humanitarian law and uphold its responsibilities as an occupying power, and to end this inhumane blockade of the Strip. 

Israel’s allies have purposefully ignored this grave violation of international humanitarian law and normalised this conduct. MSF also urges Israel’s allies, including the United States, to refrain from normalising such actions and to act decisively to prevent Gaza from plunging further into devastation.

“Israeli authorities are yet again normalising the use of aid as a negotiation tool. This is outrageous. Humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip in war,” says Myriam Laaroussi, MSF emergency coordinator. “The blockade on all supplies is inevitably hurting hundreds of thousands of people and is having deadly consequences.” 

At a moment in which the ceasefire should mean a scale up of the humanitarian response, the Israeli authorities have brought the entry of all aid to a screeching halt. The last supplies our teams were able to get into Gaza were three trucks of mostly medical supplies on 27 February. MSF has several trucks that were planned to cross into the Strip before the blockade.

MSF teams are trying to scale-up the response in Gaza, especially in the north where people have been deprived of basic needs for months.

“Gaza is now left without entry of fuel,” says Laaroussi. “Our hands are tied, and with no supply pipeline it makes it even more difficult to assist to the people of Gaza once our stocks run out. A ceasefire without scaling up humanitarian aid is contradictory.”

At the same time, the Israeli government’s suspension of electricity supply to the Strip has already forced the main water desalination plant in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, to run on fuel. The plant has dropped its production from 17 million to 2.5 million litres per day. This decision to cut electricity will therefor gradually severely impact the public water supply.

Israel’s siege that started on 9 October 2023, left hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without power, food, or fuel, causing a humanitarian catastrophe. After 15 months of bombings, displacement, and disease outbreaks, aid efforts remained restricted by mandatory pre-clearance requirements from Israeli authorities, or else rejection, of so-called dual-use items.

“Like all humanitarian organisations, MSF is forced to adapt to conditions imposed by Israeli authorities as part of a system designed to maintain the blockade of Gaza,” says Laaroussi. “Although more trucks have entered during the ceasefire, the Israel authorities’ goods entry system, systematically used to obstruct humanitarian aid, has made it impossible for us to scale-up properly, even before this blockade.”

This system, which is conducted with no transparency, systematically obstructs and restricts the entry of lifesaving supplies including scalpels, scissors, oxygen concentrators, desalination units, and generators. Even when approved, the process takes a long time and continues to be a complex bureaucratic impediment.

Four women from the Middle East and North Africa share their stories of unimaginable hardships, including displacement, loss of family members, and inadequate medical care. 

In 2024, wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, and beyond forced millions to flee, leaving destruction and despair in their wake. Women, often bearing the heaviest burden of displacement, have had to navigate violence, loss, and uncertainty—all while caring for their families and communities. 

For International Women’s Day on 8 March, four artists have brought to life the stories of four displaced women, as shared by MSF staff in war-affected zones. Through art, they have transformed these experiences into powerful visual narratives. 

“Hi human!”

When someone greets you that way, you’d feel serene. That someone sees the human in you irrespective of anything and everything. That someone is called Luis Montenegro.

Luis, who is always tempted to ask if people know where his country Nicaragua is on the map, embarked on a journey to Lebanon in May 2024. He had accepted a mission to work as a doctor for non-communicable diseases in MSF’s project in Baalbeck-Hermel, northeast of the country.

The Lebanon mission recruited the right person for the job. Not only does Luis greet you as a human, but he also treats you as a human. Put that in our professional setting, you’ll find a doctor who pours his heart into helping people heal, irrespective of anything and everything.

The situation in Lebanon was deteriorating by the day. Luis could hear Israeli airstrikes somewhere in the valley that would shake the windows.

Kyiv, 24 February 2025 – Three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, dramatically escalating an international armed conflict that began in 2014, people continue to bear the burden of the war’s devastation as seen through their lost lives, lost limbs, and lost homes. The resulting medical humanitarian needs are clearer than ever. The strain on Ukraine’s medical services has only increased, exacerbated by frequent attacks on hospitals, ambulances and medical structures.