Malnutrition admissions are overwhelming Baidoa Hospital in Somalia

Baidoa, 15 June 2026 – Malnutrition wards supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Baidoa, in Somalia’s Southwest State, are facing a record surge of children and pregnant and lactating women arriving in critical condition. ​

Between March and May, nearly 1,400 patients were admitted to the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre at Bay Regional Hospital. Even after expanding from 50 beds to 125, two and a half times its original capacity, the facility is being pushed beyond its limits as admissions continue to rise. ​ MSF is urgently calling for a rapid scale‑up of the emergency response, particularly food distribution, livelihood support, water, and nutrition support, before more lives are at risk.

Admissions doubled between March and April

Monthly admissions to the MSF-supported inpatient wards doubled from 287 patients in March to 572 in April, and remained alarmingly high in May, with more than 500 children admitted. The number of patients admitted in April was more than three times higher than in April last year. ​ Since March, MSF teams have screened more than 4,000 children, finding that nearly one in two children under five is acutely malnourished. While malnutrition rates typically rise during the lean season, this year’s levels are the highest recorded for this time of the year since 2023. ​ ​

“Our malnutrition wards in Baidoa are full,” says Allara Ali, MSF Project Coordinator in Baidoa. “We have turned every available and possible space, including other hospital’s wards, tents and offices, into treatment areas, yet more children arrive every week, in increasingly critical condition. Families have exhausted every possible coping mechanism with loss of livelihood and animal stocks. Many have sold the last of their belongings and travelled for days in search of relief. Without an immediate scale‑up of food, nutrition, and water assistance along with livelihood and cash programs, lives will continue to be lost, as is already happening in communities affected by this crisis.”

A drought amid a humanitarian funding crisis is worsening conditions

Somalia is facing a deepening humanitarian and hunger crisis following consecutive failed rainy seasons and a prolonged drought. Across the country, 6.5 million people, around one in every four Somalis, are facing severe food insecurity, with rural areas and displaced communities in Bay and surrounding districts and regions among the worst affected. The impact is now evident in soaring levels of malnutrition, particularly among children, pregnant and lactating women.Funding cuts and shrinking assistance have left families with almost no support. Compared with previous years, food and cash assistance, livelihood support for drought affected households and preventive nutrition services ​ are now nearly non‑existent.

This nutritional crisis is unfolding alongside ongoing disease outbreaks, including measles and diphtheria. Since April 2025, MSF teams in Baidoa have treated more than 3,200 suspected measles cases, and at least 33 children have died. More than 90 per cent of patients admitted had never been vaccinated. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also arriving at health facilities anaemic and malnourished. From January 2026 to May 2026, ​ 11,800 children with moderate or severe acute malnutrition had been admitted to MSF’s ambulatory therapeutic feeding centre in Baidoa, with nearly 6000 in active care as of early June, and 251 pregnant and breastfeeding women have received nutrition support.

Adegay, a mother of five from Gofgaduud, 30 kilometres from Baidoa, brought her young daughter to Bay Regional Hospital for the first time after the child had been sick for two months. “We had two years of drought, and the farm gave us nothing,” she says. “We have nothing left. My daughter was burning with fever and her body was swollen. I tried everything at home before bringing her here. It has been a year since we last received any aid or help.”

MSF is scaling up, but more assistance is needed

MSF has expanded treatment capacity while scaling up critical water, sanitation, and hygiene activities ​ to mitigate the impact of the drought. Teams are delivering approximately 170,000 litres of water every day through water trucking to 17 sites across Baidoa. The construction of 150 latrines is ongoing, and the distribution of essential non‑food items, including jerrycans and menstrual hygiene kits, is planned to support the affected families. However, medical response alone cannot turn this around. ​ Children are discharged from the hospitals into the same conditions of hunger, and risk relapsing. Severe malnutrition is treatable, but too many children reach the hospital already critically ill, or born underweight, battling infections and other complications and for some, it is too late. Outbreaks of measles and diphtheria continue to spread among children who are weakened and unvaccinated. “We are treating children around the clock, but treatment alone will not stop this,” says Frida Athanassiadis, MSF Medical Coordinator in Somalia. ​

“We are calling on donors and other organisations to urgently scale up food and livelihood assistance, including cash support for drought-affected households, as well as water provision. Nutrition support for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, expanded treatment capacity, and vaccination efforts must also be urgently increased.. Every week of delay costs lives.”

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