Somalia's Baidoa faces dual crisis as fighting erupts amid severe hunger

Baidoa, the largest city in Somalia's South West State, has become a place where violence and starvation now move in tandem. In recent weeks, fighting has erupted between government forces and fighters loyal to a former regional president who was removed from power in March. The clashes intensified on a Monday morning when thousands of local fighters entered the city, and in the crossfire, children have been killed and wounded. A health facility was damaged in the hostilities, according to UNICEF and other humanitarian organizations working on the ground.

This fresh outbreak of violence arrives at perhaps the worst possible moment. Baidoa's 26,000 most vulnerable residents are already living in what aid workers call catastrophic food insecurity—the highest rung on the hunger scale, a designation that signals imminent famine. Across all of Somalia, two million children are acutely or severely malnourished, making the country home to one of the world's most severe malnutrition crises. The roots of this emergency run deep: decades of conflict have fractured communities, mass displacement has uprooted families from their land, global trade disruptions have cut off supply routes, and extreme climate shocks—devastating droughts and floods—have destroyed harvests year after year.

The human toll is visible in individual stories. A woman named Hawo lost her father when a mortar struck their family home in Baidoa. Her brother died in the subsequent fighting. She fled to Mogadishu with her daughter, seeking refuge with her aunt, but survival there has been precarious. Some days the family eats only once. Her daughter Farhiya, weakened by malnutrition, became listless and stopped eating. When Hawo tried to take her to the Weido clinic, staff turned them away—the facility simply lacks the resources to treat more patients.

The international response, meanwhile, is shrinking precisely when need is expanding. The World Food Programme, which provides the backbone of food aid across Somalia, has seen its capacity collapse. A few years ago, WFP reached more than four million people each month with food assistance. Today, that number has fallen to just over 670,000. The organization faces severe funding cuts at a moment when the humanitarian emergency is deepening. Hameed Nuru, WFP's Country Director in Somalia, recalled that in 2022, when the country endured its longest drought in four decades, timely and generous funding allowed the organization to scale up aid and prevent famine. No such surge appears imminent now.

Weather patterns are expected to worsen conditions further. A stronger-than-ever El Niño system is forecast to intensify the October-December rainy season, which could deepen the food security crisis. UNICEF has called on all parties to the conflict to protect children from harm, safeguard schools and health facilities, and allow humanitarian workers unobstructed access to reach those in need. The organization expressed deep concern that children are once again bearing the heaviest burden of violence. What happens next in Baidoa will depend on whether the fighting subsides, whether funding for aid organizations materializes, and whether the predicted rains bring relief or further catastrophe.