Somali children are 'on the edge' as hunger spreads. UNICEF says Iran war has worsened the crisis

DOLLOW, Somalia (AP) — The sound of a crying child is a sign of hope in a crowded displacement camp in southern Somalia — the most malnourished children are too weak to even cry.

For the mothers in the Ladan camp in the town of Dollow, survival is the only thing on their minds — not the Iran war or how UNICEF gets the supplies to keep the place running. The displaced here have fled the drought that has ravaged swaths of this Horn of Africa nation after four failed rain seasons.

Their crops and livestock devastated, they show up at the camp, often with nothing but their children.

Aid workers at Ladan say the raging war in the Middle East — more than 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) away — has made their work harder, disrupting supplies and sending fuel costs soaring.

Raising the alarm

UNICEF says it has $15.7 million worth of lifesaving supplies — including therapeutic food, vaccines, and mosquito nets — in transit or being prepared for delivery to Somalia. But those shipments now are uncertain.

Transport costs could rise by 30% to 60%, and even double on some routes, while delays caused by rerouting and backlog become more likely, the U.N. agency says.

During a visit to Dollow on Wednesday, Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said the Iran war has been a “shock to the system” for the agency's work on the ground in Somalia.

"It means that we can’t get supplies in as easily, and that fuel costs are really high,” she said. “It’s another problem that we have to try to deal with, and it means that more and more children will suffer.”

At the same time, more than 400 health and nutrition facilities have closed over the past year across Somalia, due mainly to U.S. funding cuts, leaving many communities without access to support. Aid agencies warn more closures could follow.

All those issues have compounded the situation in Laden, where hunger threatens especially the youngest.

“What we’re seeing is that children are really on the edge already," Russell said.

Grim numbers

In Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, the government warned last month that nearly 6.5 million people — out of the population of more than 20 million — face severe hunger as the drought worsens and conflict and global aid cuts intensify the country’s crisis.

The humanitarian needs are just the tip of the iceberg as the Somali government grapples with its long-running war against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militant group, fighting to reclaim territory from the extremists.

The latest data from a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global hunger monitoring group, estimates that 1.84 million children under the age of 5 in Somalia are expected to suffer acute malnutrition in 2026.

Fending for their lives

In Ladan, spread across the town’s dusty outskirts, rows of makeshift shelters stretch under the harsh sun, fragile structures of plastic sheets and torn fabric held together by sticks and thorn branches. The camp is home to about 4,500 households.

“We just want our children to survive," said Shamso Nur Hussein, a 20-year-old widow with three children. She fled their village in the Bakool region after losing all her farm animals.

Her cooking hearth at the camp — three stones and ash — was cold, with no sign of a recent fire.

“Since morning we have only had black tea,” she told The Associated Press at the camp.

At the hospital in Dollow, mothers sat shoulder to shoulder on narrow beds holding frail children, some too weak to cry while others let out soft whimpers.

Liban Roble, a nutrition program coordinator, said the hospital used to see mainly "moderate cases.”

“Now we are receiving children in extremely critical condition — severely malnourished, weak, and in some cases almost skeletal,” he said.

Supplies running low

Roble said the hospital has only supplies to treat the malnourished "until mid-April or the end of April.”

“If new stock doesn’t arrive, more children will deteriorate and potentially die,” he said.

At Ladan's nutrition center, health workers weighed children and dispensed a peanut-based paste, squeezing it into the children’s mouths.

It's a lifeline, a means to prevent rapid decline of the malnourished children, nurse Abdimajid Adan Hussein said.

“Their weakened bodies make them vulnerable to pneumonia, diarrhea and other illnesses,” Hussein said.

Community leaders say support is already falling short.

“We used to receive assistance from humanitarian agencies, but that stopped in September 2025,” said Abdifatah Mohamed Osman, Ladan's deputy chairman. “Now the little support we get is mainly therapeutic food for malnourished children.”

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