Families in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, say they are increasingly going without food as drought, rising prices and shrinking humanitarian support pile pressure on some of the city’s poorest communities.
Footage filmed on Friday shows mothers and children living in small makeshift shelters with few basic facilities. Residents say some homes have no electricity, while families struggling to find work can sometimes go an entire day without eating.
One respondent noted repeated appeals for help had been met with the same explanation: international aid cuts had left fewer resources available.
“When we go to government ministries and tell them, ‘We have poor mothers here who are suffering like this’. We tell them that we are unable to light the fire to cook even three meals a day. They tell us that this is a problem affecting the whole world and that we are facing the same situation as everyone else,” the woman said.
“They always give us the same explanation and use it as a reason not to help us – that Trump stopped aid to the world,” she added.
The current US administration has sharply reduced foreign assistance, which has reportedly caused a 30per cent global drop in humanitarian funding, driving a massive crisis across aid operations in Africa.
Residents say years of economic pressure, repeated droughts and rising prices have steadily eroded their ability to afford food and other basic needs.
“Food shortages are a serious problem for us, especially for mothers who are living with illnesses. And for orphans and single mothers. Imagine three mothers, each with three children, all living together in one house. Now imagine having food shortages on top of that,” one local said.
For some mothers, irregular work washing clothes or cleaning homes is one of the few ways to earn money for food.
“If I get clothes, I wash them so that I can earn some money for food, or I clean somewhere to make a little money,” one woman said.
“Sometimes, both my children and I go without food for all three meals of the day,” she added.
Drought has hit Somaliland and other northern areas hard, with failed rains damaging livelihoods, cutting livestock production and driving up the cost of food.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and operates its own government and institutions, although it still lacks broad international recognition.
The hunger crisis stretches across the wider region. UN agencies said six million people across Somalia, around 31 per cent of the analysed population, faced crisis levels of food insecurity or worse between April and June.
Nearly 1.9 million children under five years of age were also expected to suffer acute malnutrition during 2026.
Source: Viory
