Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has demanded the restoration of malnutrition treatment in Somalia, particularly across Mudug.

In a statement on Thursday, MSF called on donors, UN agencies and health authorities to restore and scale up malnutrition treatment at the general healthcare level across Mudug

“The inpatient malnutrition ward of Mudug Regional hospital in Somalia has been operating beyond capacity, with over 1,300 children admitted in the first half of the year.

Children are arriving to the ward later and sicker, after health facilities within communities have closed across Mudug region,” the MSF stated.

The organisation noted that healthcare and nutrition services had closed across Mudug region in central Somalia, and children arrived at hospital in critical condition after treatment closer to home failed them.

“Since early April 2026 it has been running beyond that capacity. Due to the overwhelming need for care, the team has continued to admit children despite the ward being full. At its peak in late May, almost twice that number of children were being treated there.

“Between January and July, MSF admitted 1,389 children for inpatient treatment of acute malnutrition and medical complications, 809 of them severely malnourished. Between May and July, 1,322 children were admitted to outpatient malnutrition treatment, compared with 788 over the same three months in 2025 — an increase of nearly 60 per cent,” the MSF said.

The organisation explained that caregivers of most of the children had already sought care somewhere else first, adding that eleven children newly admitted over one week in June, ten had already attended a health facility closer to home.

MSF project coordinator in Somalia, Emmanuel Omale, noted, “By the time these children reach us, they are not only malnourished. They have pneumonia, or measles, or diphtheria on top of it, which is much harder to treat and increases the risk of death. They are not arriving late because their families waited. They are arriving late because there was nothing left closer to home.”

According to the statement, Somalia’s humanitarian response plan was reduced to US$852 million for 2026 and still less than one-third funded by July, and the World Food Programme had cut emergency food assistance from more than two million people to just over 600,000.

“More than 70 health facilities in Puntland, one of Somalia’s federal member states which covers the northern part of Mudug region, have closed. Rainfall has been substantially below average across Mudug through 2026, and pastoral families have moved in search of water and pasture, taking them further from facilities that are still functioning,” it added.

The MSF noted that it would continue to admit and treat every acutely malnourished child who reached Mudug Regional hospital, and keep looking for ways to add capacity, calling on international agencies, including the UN, for urgent intervention.