Somalia aid cuts close 205 health facilities, UNICEF says

International aid cuts have forced 205 health and nutrition facilities to close across drought-hit Somalia, leaving more children facing life-threatening malnutrition, UNICEF said Friday.

James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations children's agency, said Somalia's children were “paying the price” for a reduction in international aid funding since last year. Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Nairobi, he said the impact on children had been immediate.

UNICEF said admissions of children with severe acute malnutrition to stabilisation centres rose 32 percent in the first six months of the year. Elder said nearly 1.9 million children are projected to be affected by malnutrition in Somalia this year, including nearly half a million with the deadliest form.

UN-backed experts estimated in June that almost a third of Somalis faced food insecurity as the country experienced one of its worst droughts in years.

Elder said Somalia was also facing a worsening climate crisis, severe drought in parts of the north, conflict and displacement. He warned that the funding cuts had contributed to a 30-percent drop in health and nutrition service coverage and that, under severe funding scenarios, as many as 618 health facilities could close nationwide.

UNICEF said nearly a million children under five, adolescent girls and women risk losing access to nutrition services. It also said aid cuts were reducing access to water as prices in rural and pastoral areas had quadrupled.

Education has also been affected, Elder said, with more than 78,000 students already dropped out and another 660,000 at risk of doing so. He said dozens of child protection facilities helping to reintegrate children formerly associated with armed groups or at risk of recruitment had also closed.