In part due to U.S. foreign assistance cuts to nutrition programs and clinics, deaths among severely malnourished children increased by 44% in the first half of 2025 at Baidoa Bay Regional Hospital in Somalia, with 47% of deaths occurring within two days of a child's arrival due to the severity of their condition.

Date: 1/26

Region: Africa

Country: Somalia

Topic: Food & Farming, Health

Policy Lens: Global Health Security

Entry Type: Secondary Effect

Additional Context: According to MSF, aid disruptions in Somalia brought shipments of therapeutic milk to a halt for months. The number of severely malnourished children admitted to MSF-supported facilities rose from 1,937 in the first nine months of 2024 to 3,355 in the same period in 2025. Though MSF does not accept US government funding, over the course of 2025, their teams have documented the impact of the US government's retreat from the communities they work in.

Source: MSF