--- description: Five million people in Somalia, including 300,000 children under five, are suffering from food shortages, according to a new report. title: Five Million in Somalia Suffering Food Shortages: U.N. image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51d9b97243516955/6988a6e8fb4eac095a88f317/gettyimages-542157812.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Somalia](/tag/somalia/) ## Somalia Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Five Million People in Somalia Do Not Have Enough Food, the U.N. Says by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 21, 2016 3:27 AM CUT  Somalian people wait on the queue as Turkish and Qatari officials dispatch humanitarian aid goods on the Islamic holy month Ramadan at Beledweyne in Hiran, Somalia on June 22, 2016. Somalian people wait on the queue as Turkish and Qatari officials dispatch humanitarian aid goods on the Islamic holy month Ramadan at Beledweyne in Hiran, Somalia on June 22, 2016.Nour Gelle Gedi—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 21, 2016 3:27 AM CUT Five million people in Somalia, including 300,000 children under five, are suffering from food shortages, according to a new [report](http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Press%20release%20Five%20million%20Somalis%20now%20food%20insecure.pdf "undefined") by the United Nations. Among that estimate — representing over 40% of the population — 50,000 children are described as “severely malnourished.” The report, released Tuesday, adds that the number of people considered “food insecure” has increased by 300,000 in the past seven months. The East African nation has long been wracked by violent conflict that has displaced over a million people, and its malnutrition problem has been exacerbated this year by drought conditions that have reportedly lowered crop production by half. In addition, a Somalian Humanitarian Response Plan has only received 32% of its desired funding, Peter de Clercq, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said in a statement. “Additional resources are urgently required to boost response and ongoing efforts to sustainably address malnutrition and access to food,” he added. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502298/somalia-food-shortage-un-famine-hunger/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502298/somalia-food-shortage-un-famine-hunger/"},"headline":"Five Million People in Somalia Do Not Have Enough Food, the U.N. Says","datePublished":"2016-09-21T03:27:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:43:38.315Z","description":"A plan to solve the country's humanitarian crisis has only received 32% funding","url":"https://time.com/4502298/somalia-food-shortage-un-famine-hunger/","keywords":["Somalia","Children","conflict"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51d9b97243516955/6988a6e8fb4eac095a88f317/gettyimages-542157812.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt51d9b97243516955/6988a6e8fb4eac095a88f317/gettyimages-542157812.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Humanitarian aid to flood and clash victims in Somalia","caption":"Humanitarian aid to flood and clash victims in Somalia","creditText":"Nour Gelle Gedi—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/somalia/","name":"Somalia"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502298/somalia-food-shortage-un-famine-hunger/","name":"Five Million People in Somalia Do Not Have Enough Food, the U.N. Says"}}]}] ```