GENEVA/ROME, 09 May. - (ANA) - This is a summary of what was said by the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Assistant Executive Director, Matthew Hollingworth, to whom quoted text may be attributed – at a press briefing in Geneva today.

 

Today, I want to draw attention to a crisis that is unfortunately, yet again, accelerating in Somalia and doing so with alarming speed. 

 

I returned just this morning from a week in Somalia. Across the country I saw families that are now facing the cumulative effects of repeated extreme weather shocks, conflict, and economic pressure - all that are pushing hunger to dangerous levels. 

 

Somalia has now endured multiple failed rainy seasons - three consecutively - which has devastated crops, wiped-out livestock, is eroding livelihoods, and is impacting millions of people. 

 

Across the country, but particularly in Puntland, I saw water resources that have completely dried up. We see markets everywhere that are strained. And for many communities, recovery from previous crises has simply not been possible.

 

Now six million people, almost one in three Somalis, are facing acute hunger. Among them, two million are already in emergency conditions - IPC phase four - one step from famine. Roughly 1.9 million children are acutely malnourished and hundreds of thousands of them are at risk of the most severe form of malnourishment.

 

This is not a distant warning. This is a crisis that is unfolding right now and it's deepening quickly.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/09 May 2026 - - -