BURHAKABA HUNGER CRISIS

Where is Burhakaba, Somalia?

Burhakaba is a district and town in the Bay region of southern Somalia, within the Southwest State.

It lies about 180 km southwest of Mogadishu and 60 km southeast of Baidoa. It's the second-largest district in the Bay region, with an estimated population of over 200,000 people spread across nearly 400 rural villages, the largest such concentration in Somalia.

What is happening in Burhakaba now and over the past months?

Burhakaba is facing famine-like conditions following consecutive failed rainy seasons, prolonged drought and repeated crop failures, forcing many families to reduce the number of meals they eat each day or rely on humanitarian assistance for survival.

The district has recorded a Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate of 37.1 per cent, reflecting the severity of the nutrition crisis among children under five. Drought-induced displacement has further stretched already overstretched health, nutrition, water and sanitation services.

What does this mean for children and families?

Children and families in Burhakaba are facing a daily struggle to survive. Many parents are skipping meals so their children can eat, while others are travelling long distances to find food, water and life-saving healthcare.

More children are arriving at health facilities with severe acute malnutrition, and many are at risk of preventable illness and death without timely treatment.

After losing her livelihood to the relentless drought, Shukri Adan, 33, fled her rural home in Tiyeglow District, Bakool Region, with her six children. She ended up in an IDP camp in Baidoa, a city now hosting approximately 1.6 million people, more than half of whom are internally displaced persons (IDPs).

"The drought took everything from us. One by one, our goats and cows died. For days, we had no food, no water, and no one came to help us. I watched my children grow weaker each day, and I truly believed we would die of hunger before we could reach help. Walking for four days was our only chance to keep them alive."

How is SOS Children’s Villages responding?

SOS Children’s Villages is one of the few remaining international organizations along with local partners, responding in Burhakaba. As Chair of the Area-Based Coordination (ABC), we work with the Southwest Ministry of Health and humanitarian partners to deliver life-saving health, nutrition, protection and emergency education services to displaced and vulnerable host communities.

Currently, SOS Children’s Villages supports 16 mobile service sites and three fixed health facilities, including the district's only 16-bed Nutrition Stabilization Centre (SC) at Burhakaba District Hospital, as well as Hakaba Referral Hospital, serving host communities, internally displaced people (IDPs), and surrounding rural villages. An additional four mobile sites are scheduled to become operational from August 2026, further expanding access to essential services.

These facilities collectively reach more than 9,000 beneficiaries each month, with caseloads continuing to rise as the humanitarian crisis deepens. Thanks to generous, concerted funding from the Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF), the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), SOS Children’s Villages Worldwide (CVW), and Heimstaden.    

“Over the past six months, our Stabilisation Centre (SC) at Burhakaba District Hospital in Bay Region has treated 350 children with severe acute malnutrition. Yet treatment alone cannot break the cycle. After weeks of recovery, mothers return home, often 30 to 40 kilometres away, to the same food insecurity that made their children sick. Too often, they return carrying the same child, or another child, who is once again suffering from severe malnutrition. This means children are trapped in a vicious cycle of malnutrition.”

Hassan Mohamed

Humanitarian Coordinator for SOS Children’s Villages in Somalia

What needs to happen now?

Our teams are seeing increasing numbers of children suffering from malnutrition, while families are walking for days to reach life-saving services. Without urgent and sustained support, more children will face severe malnutrition, more families will be displaced, and preventable deaths will continue to rise.

We call on the international community and donors to:

• Scale up emergency life-saving assistance in health, nutrition, WASH and protection
• Invest in livelihoods and resilience to break the cycle of hunger
• Provide flexible, multi-year funding for sustained response

Together, we can break the cycle of hunger, strengthen communities, and save lives in Burhakaba.