Somalia is facing growing pressure on nutrition and healthcare services in the central Mudug region, where children with acute malnutrition are increasingly reaching hospital in more serious condition after treatment options closer to their communities have become unavailable.
Médecins Sans Frontières is calling on donors, United Nations agencies and health authorities to restore and expand malnutrition treatment throughout Mudug, with a particular focus on ensuring that children can access care before their conditions become critical.
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The inpatient malnutrition ward supported by MSF at Mudug Regional Hospital in Galkayo has 28 beds but has been operating beyond capacity since early April. Despite the limited space, medical teams have continued admitting children because of the level of need. At the peak of the pressure in late May, almost twice the ward’s normal capacity was being treated.
Between January and July 2026, MSF admitted 1,389 children for inpatient treatment of acute malnutrition and related medical complications, including 809 children with severe malnutrition. Between May and July alone, 1,322 children received outpatient malnutrition treatment, compared with 788 during the same period in 2025 — an increase of nearly 60 percent.
The rising hospital admissions are closely connected to reduced access to healthcare within communities. According to MSF, many families had already sought help at health facilities closer to home before traveling to Galkayo. In one sample of 11 newly admitted children during a week in June, 10 had previously been taken to another health facility.
Families reported reaching the MSF-supported hospital after local facilities lacked medicines, therapeutic milk or the capacity to provide effective treatment.
One caregiver, Sabrin Ahmed, traveled for about 12 hours from Abudwak, approximately 270 kilometres away, after being told that the local hospital could not treat her 11-month-old child and that the therapeutic milk needed for treatment was unavailable.
MSF says children arriving at the hospital are often dealing with additional medical complications alongside malnutrition, including pneumonia, measles and diphtheria. Treating these conditions together becomes more difficult when children arrive after their illnesses have progressed.
The situation illustrates the importance of a functioning healthcare chain in which malnutrition can be identified and treated early within communities, with hospitals providing specialized care for children who need it most.
Humanitarian financing constraints are adding to the pressure. Somalia’s 2026 humanitarian response plan was reduced to US$852 million and remained less than one-third funded by July, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The World Food Programme has also reduced emergency food assistance from more than two million people to just over 600,000.
More than 70 health facilities in Puntland, which covers the northern part of Mudug, have closed, according to MSF. At the same time, rainfall across Mudug has remained substantially below average during 2026, prompting pastoral families to move in search of water and pasture and, in some cases, taking them farther from functioning health facilities.
MSF is urging stakeholders to restore and scale up both inpatient and outpatient treatment for acute malnutrition across Mudug, alongside uninterrupted supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food and essential medicines.
Early treatment can prevent children from becoming severely ill and can reduce pressure on hospitals by ensuring that cases are managed closer to where families live.
MSF says it will continue treating acutely malnourished children arriving at Mudug Regional Hospital while exploring ways to increase capacity. The organization is also emphasizing that hospital services cannot replace a functioning network of community-level health facilities.
For Somalia, restoring that network is central to ensuring that children receive timely nutrition and medical care. Strengthening treatment closer to communities could help prevent avoidable deterioration, reduce pressure on already stretched hospitals and provide families across Mudug with a more reliable pathway to care.
