Somalia’s Overlapping Crises: Climate, Conflict, and the Path to Resilience
A deep dive into Somalia’s escalating humanitarian crisis, the climate drivers behind it, and local resilience efforts aiming to safeguard the nation’s future.
Somalia is at the heart of a multi-layered humanitarian crisis, where a harsh cocktail of climate change, protracted conflict, and weak governance continue to punish its people. Long considered one of the world’s most fragile states, Somalia now faces an intersection of new and old threats that threaten to perpetuate the nation’s suffering for generations. But amid the devastation, grassroots resilience and innovation offer a glimmer of hope.
Understanding the Roots of Somalia’s Crisis
To comprehend the scale and complexity of Somalia’s current predicament, it’s essential to untangle the multiple challenges the nation faces:
- Climate Change: Prolonged droughts, more frequent floods, and intensifying resource scarcity have devastated agriculture and displaced millions.
- Conflict: Three decades of ongoing civil conflict have shredded the social contract, undermined institutions, and seeded widespread violence.
- Economic Strain: Widespread unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity are forcing families into impossible choices.
These intertwined crises feed off one another, making progress elusive even in the face of international aid and local innovation.
Drought, Floods, and the Human Cost
Somalia has always been susceptible to harsh weather conditions. However, climate change has drastically increased the frequency and severity of droughts and floods, disrupting livelihoods and threatening survival itself. The nation, heavily reliant on subsistence agriculture and pastoralism, has seen much of its farmland rendered barren, and livestock herds decimated.
- Consecutive Failed Rains: As of late 2022, Somalia experienced five consecutive failed rainy seasons—the longest drought in four decades—plunging harvests and causing widespread famine risk.
- Catastrophic Hunger: The 2022 drought contributed to an estimated 43,000 excess deaths—most among children under five.
- Mass Displacement: More than 3-4 million people have been driven from their homes by hunger and lack of water, crowding into makeshift IDP (internally displaced persons) camps.
- Public Health Crisis: Malnutrition leaves children and adults more prone to diseases such as diarrhea, measles, and malaria, while fragile healthcare systems are overwhelmed.
These environmental shocks do not affect all Somalis equally. Rural, agricultural, and pastoral communities are especially vulnerable, seeing centuries-old ways of life evaporating along with the rain.
The Intertwined Challenges: Conflict and Resource Scarcity
In Somalia, climate is never just an environmental issue—it is a threat multiplier. Droughts and floods exacerbate longstanding resource competition, fueling disputes between farmers and herders, neighbors, and clans.
- Resource Conflict: As water grows scarce, violent conflicts erupt over land, grazing, and wells. One Somali farmer reflected, “There is no respect if you don’t have a gun. The herders who lead their animals into the farm stay back when they see my weapon.”
- Broken Institutions: Decades of civil war have left state systems—such as land management and the legal system—unable to mediate these disputes effectively.
- Humanitarian Fallout: With social safety nets worn thin, Somalis face impossible choices: skipping meals, marrying off children, or migrating in search of relative safety and sustenance.
The spiraling rivalry can often be traced back to “conflict over basic resources”, particularly in times of scarcity. These cycles of violence and displacement render millions vulnerable to recruitment by militant factions or trafficking, and perpetuate instability that makes climate adaptation all the more difficult.
What others are reading
Collapse of Domestic Food Production
Somalia was once relatively self-sufficient in food production, but the compounded effects of war and repeated environmental disasters have reversed decades of progress.
- Since the onset of the civil conflict, Somalia produces less than half as much food as it did before the 1990s.
- The country is “dangerously reliant” on imported grains, with over 90% of wheat coming from Russia and Ukraine—a vulnerability highlighted by recent global supply chain shocks.
- While the global price of staple foods has soared, purchasing power among ordinary Somalis has sunk, pushing many to the brink of starvation.
Lack of infrastructure, irrigation, and access to modern agricultural inputs means many smallholder farmers cannot adapt quickly to shifting weather or markets. As one international aid official noted, “There are no risk-management mechanisms for agricultural production systems, such as trustworthy information networks, timely weather information, or government-driven livestock insurance.”
Women and Children: The Most Vulnerable
Crisis disproportionately affects women and children in Somalia. Malnutrition rates are highest among children under five, many of whom succumb to disease or starvation. With household resources drained, families often resort to the following extreme measures:
- Skipping meals or reducing meal frequency.
- Arranging early marriages for daughters as a coping strategy.
- Remunerative migration or exploitative labor, including children.
Women, often the primary caregivers, find themselves bearing the brunt of the crisis in both rural and urban environments.
COVID-19: Layering on Crisis
Within this already catastrophic context, the global COVID-19 pandemic added yet another stressor:
- Disrupted aid supply and humanitarian access.
- Reduced remittances from the Somali diaspora—the lifeline for many families.
- Overwhelmed and under-equipped healthcare infrastructure, unable to safeguard against either communicable diseases or worsening malnutrition.
This convergence of crises reveals the vulnerability that results when environmental, health, and governance shocks hit a fragile system simultaneously.
Community Adaptation and Local Solutions
Yet, within the gloom, stories of local adaptation, ingenuity, and hope abound. Somali individuals, communities, and local businesses are taking measures to ensure survival—not just for today, but for future generations.
Innovations in Renewable Energy
- Solar Power and Wind Energy: Investments in decentralized renewable energy projects are helping reduce reliance on imported fuels and providing power to off-grid communities.
- Job Creation: New energy businesses are emerging, providing both livelihoods and much-needed services in rural areas.
While a far cry from the scale of the national grid, these initiatives foster a local sense of agency and lay the groundwork for further development.
Grassroots Water Management
- Communities are reviving traditional water-harvesting techniques such as berkads (underground water reservoirs).
- Smallholder cooperatives are organizing to share resources and minimize conflict over grazing land and wells.
Agricultural Innovation and Training
- Pilot projects introduce drought-resistant seeds and climate-smart farming methods where conditions allow.
- International organizations are supporting the training of agricultural officers to help farmers adapt to changing weather patterns.
Strengthening Institutions and Local Systems
Somalia’s ability to build long-term resilience depends on transforming its institutions and improving local capacity:
- Investing in agricultural extension services to bring timely information and modern practices to rural farmers.
- Developing government and educational systems able to assess risk, target aid, and enforce regulations that ensure equitable resource access.
- Promoting collaboration between communities, regional administrations, and traditional authorities.
These measures require continuous support from the international community but must ultimately be tailored and led by Somalis themselves for true sustainability.
Urgent Need for Global Solidarity
Despite these efforts, the crisis in Somalia is too vast for local solutions alone. International aid and investment are crucial—not just for humanitarian relief but for building the systems, infrastructure, and climate resilience that can break the cycle.
- Greater Humanitarian Support: Address immediate needs in displacement camps, prevent famine, and ensure children can survive and develop.
- Long-Term Development Financing: Fund infrastructure, renewable energy, and education to promote food security and sustainable growth.
- Tackling Global Drivers: Recognize that Somalia’s predicament is shaped by climate injustice—a nation minimally responsible for global emissions but among the first and hardest hit by its effects.
Increased financial flows, technical expertise, and policy advocacy from the global community can help ease suffering and support Somalia’s journey toward a more stable and self-determined future.
Somalia’s Future: Between Crisis and Hope
Somalia stands on the frontlines of a new world reality: how environmental change, conflict, and poverty collide to create complex, persistent crises. Yet, it also offers lessons in resilience, agency, and adaptation—proof that even amidst catastrophe, seeds of hope and renewal can take root.
Moving forward, the priorities should include:
- Scaling up climate-smart agriculture and regional food security initiatives.
- Supporting local renewable energy projects and training programs.
- Reforming governance and strengthening institutions to mediate conflict and plan for risk.
- Centering the voices and needs of Somalia’s most vulnerable—women, children, farmers, and pastoralists—in all policy responses.
Only through a combination of local innovation, national reform, and robust international solidarity can Somalia hope to break the cycle and chart a path to a future less dictated by crisis—and more by choice.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Why is Somalia so vulnerable to climate change?
A: Somalia is highly vulnerable due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture and pastoralism, history of protracted conflict that has weakened institutions, and limited access to modern technologies and resources for adaptation.
Q: How has the climate crisis worsened displacement and hunger?
A: Repeated droughts and floods destroy crops and herds, leaving millions unable to produce or purchase food. This forces many to migrate to urban centers or across borders in search of food, water, and safety, swelling the ranks of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
Q: What role does conflict play in Somalia’s humanitarian crisis?
A: Ongoing violence magnifies the impacts of resource shortages by breaking down mediation systems, triggering population displacement, and making development or humanitarian access far more difficult.
Q: What adaptation strategies are being used in Somalia?
A: Communities are investing in renewable energy, water harvesting, drought-resistant crops, and conflict mediation. International partnerships are training local agricultural officers and building capacity in local institutions to better manage climate risks.
Q: How can the international community support Somalia?
A: By providing immediate humanitarian aid, supporting long-term development, investing in climate adaptation, and advocating for global climate justice to address the underlying inequities that have left Somalia so exposed to external shocks.
References
- https://www.ehn.org/somalia-s-climate-crisis-is-worsening-long-standing-challenges
- https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/07/somalia-climate-change-crisis/
- https://www.rescue.org/article/crisis-somalia-catastrophic-hunger-amid-drought-and-conflict
- https://www.cspps.org/Conflict-Climate-Change-COVID-19-Somalia
- https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/feature/2018/02/21/somalia-s-climate-change-refugees
Similar Articles
Read full bio of Sneha Tete
