Mogadishu camp residents face hunger and poverty after fleeing drought and floods

Millions of Somalis have been forced from their homes by a relentless combination of drought, floods and conflict, with more than four million people now living in overcrowded displacement camps across the country. By the end of last year, an estimated 3.5 million people had been displaced by climatic shocks and violence, according to UN data, and projections suggest that a further 230,000 individuals could be uprooted between April and June this year alone. The scale of the crisis has pushed Somalia to the top of the 2025 Global Hunger Index as the hungriest nation on earth for the second consecutive year.

Displaced families face destitution in crowded camps

For Zeynab Ibrahim, a 38-year-old single mother, the journey to displacement began when the rains failed and the land around her home near Burhakaba in central Somalia turned to dust. Over three years she watched her town shrivel, her reservoirs empty and her farms die. Hunger and sickness swept through the village, claiming the lives of four of her ten children. “We tried every means to survive – selling dried grass and digging up water from the barren earth,” she says, sitting outside a makeshift shelter in the Kahda district of Mogadishu. “Unfortunately, there was nothing left, so we had no choice but to escape to save our children.” A truck driver transporting other families brought her and her six surviving children to the capital, where they joined more than a million displaced people living in abysmal conditions in informal settlements across the city. Mogadishu’s Daynile and Kahda districts alone now host over 1.16 million people in IDP camps and informal settlements, according to humanitarian agencies.

Ibrahim shares a small hut built from sticks and covered with old clothes and plastic, offering little protection from the elements. She has received no support from the government or aid agencies since arriving two months ago and relies on neighbours who are also struggling. Every morning she takes her children to Mogadishu’s Bakara market to beg. “We are lucky if we get one meal a day,” she says. “I’m not healthy enough to work, and I don’t have any skills other than farming. I just walk around the market asking people to help feed my children.”

Adan Roble, 77, has lived through all three drivers of displacement. Years of drought destroyed his crops and dried up his farmland near Janale town in the Lower Shabelle region. Then last month, rains that fell on the parched earth caused flash flooding that swept through his village, washing away everything. Above him, the sky was full of military drones as government forces fought al-Shabaab nearby. “Imagine losing everything and trying to survive without food and clean water, while fighting continues around you and drones keep flying overhead,” he says. “We lived in fear every day, and there was no help coming, so we had to flee.” This is not the first time Roble has been forced to move; two years ago fighting pushed him temporarily to an IDP camp in Afgoye town. Now back in a camp, he worries that his children will have no future. “No one even talks about school here,” he says. “I fear my children will not have a future. I’m old, weak and cannot do much to support my children. Their mother goes out to wash clothes for people in the city. And sometimes when she fails to find a job, she resorts to begging to avoid coming back home empty-handed.”

Women and girls in IDP camps face a heightened risk of sexual violence and harassment, while children bear the brunt of the crisis. According to the latest integrated food security phase classification (IPC) report, nearly 1.9 million children under five are facing acute malnutrition. The IPC analysis also projects that 1.6 million under-fives will experience acute malnutrition between August 2024 and July 2025, with over 400,000 of those expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Nearly 500 nutrition clinics have now closed because of a lack of funding, leaving children such as Ibrahim’s youngest, who is two, without care. In the past three months alone, more than 700 children under five were admitted to Kismayo General Hospital’s specialised stabilisation centre, and ten of them died, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The few remaining centres are operating under immense pressure, forcing staff to make impossible choices about who to prioritise.

Climate shocks and conflict create a compounding crisis

The humanitarian catastrophe has been driven by a vicious cycle of climate extremes and ongoing insecurity. Somalia suffered its most severe drought in four decades between 2020 and 2023, which displaced 1.3 million people. During that period, over 75 per cent of all new displacements were climate-driven, according to UN records. The drought was followed by devastating floods during the Deyr rainy season (October to December) and the Gu rains (April to May), which destroyed crops, shelters and infrastructure. Harvests in 2024 were 45 per cent below average, and food prices have risen by up to 160 per cent above pre-2020 levels, according to humanitarian assessments. Projections indicate a high likelihood of La Niña conditions persisting into 2025, which would bring continued dry spells to southern and central regions, further undermining food security and livestock recovery.

Conflict remains a persistent driver of displacement and suffering. Al-Shabaab continues to exploit the government’s limited capacity and the dire humanitarian situation, targeting food deliveries and water infrastructure, and imposing harsh constraints on aid in areas under its control. In 2024 alone, conflict and insecurity were responsible for the displacement of 290,000 people, while inter-clan fighting has also contributed significantly to new internal displacements. Ongoing violence disrupts livelihoods and hinders humanitarian access, making it extremely difficult for aid agencies to reach those in need.

The cumulative effect has pushed more than 6.5 million Somalis to the brink of severe hunger – nearly a third of the population. Internally displaced people are the worst affected, living on overcrowded sites with limited access to water, sanitation, health and hygiene facilities. The World Food Programme faces a significant funding shortfall that has forced drastic reductions in emergency food assistance, leaving millions unreached and increasing famine risks. Broader global factors have added to the strain: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to conflict in the Middle East has driven up the cost of fuel, food and transport, while significant cuts in international humanitarian aid – particularly from European donors – have created unprecedented gaps in assistance.

During a recent visit to Somalia, the UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, highlighted the compounding effect of the climate crisis and expressed frustration at the shrinking ability of aid agencies to respond because of severe funding cuts. Speaking from a camp in Baidoa, he described the grim reality facing displaced families. “On top of conflict and displacement, you have got the flash floods and the drought getting worse,” Fletcher said. “That should make us furious, about the lack of humanity being shown at this moment – this moment of reckless geopolitics, of war, conflict, indifference and cruelty. It just frustrates me because we are running out of ways to try to drive this message home, about the reality for so many people in need right now globally. And we can’t understand why people will not listen, why people will not hear the voices of the mothers and children that I am meeting here.”

Political turmoil hampers relief efforts

The worsening humanitarian crisis comes against a backdrop of high political tension that analysts say will only hamper efforts to help displaced Somalis. The federal parliament’s mandate ended on 14 April, while the president’s term expired on 15 May. Controversial amendments extended both terms, but opposition leaders, including former president Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, accused the government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of illegally extending its mandate and seizing public and private land. They called for a public rally against the government, but police dispersed the demonstration, with reports that one civilian was killed and several others injured.

Former prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire condemned the violence on social media, writing: “Those who took to the streets today were unarmed civilians expressing legitimate grievances. No opposition forces were present among the demonstrators. The only armed actors at the scene were government security personnel deployed under the authority of the federal government. The use of lethal and excessive force against peaceful civilians constitutes a grave violation of fundamental rights, including the rights to life, peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Those responsible must be held accountable.” In response, the government said peaceful demonstrations were lawful but warned against “any attempt to convert lawful protest into armed confrontation [and] disruption of public life.”

The situation remains tense as opposition leaders have vowed to continue protests. Analysts warn that renewed instability would only worsen the suffering of millions already reeling from the worst drought in decades. “The political situation in Somalia has entered a critical stage, as the four-year mandate of the current federal government leadership is coming to an end without a political agreement on the next federal electoral process,” says Mahad Wasuge, director of the Mogadishu think tank Somali Public Agenda. “Key national political stakeholders are not currently part of the direct elections that the federal government has been working on over the past years. We do not know how long the demonstrations and stalemate will continue. As this is a pressing and critical political development, the humanitarian situation and efforts to address humanitarian emergencies seem secondary. I do not see a refocus on the humanitarian situation from the leadership without dialogue and agreement on the national electoral process.”

For those already displaced, the political crisis offers no respite. In the Kahda camp, Zeynab Ibrahim says she has not received any support from the government or aid agencies since arriving two months ago. “We need support from everyone including the government, aid agencies, the Somali people and anyone who can come to help us because we desperately need help,” she says. Adan Roble, sitting in his shelter, echoes the plea: “The only thing we have now is hope that things will get better.”