Failed Rains and a Worsening Drought, Somalia’s Preventable Crisis

Somalia is experiencing an increasingly severe drought driven by repeated rainfall failures that have devastated pastoral and agricultural livelihoods. Consecutive poor rainy seasons—particularly the weak Gu rains of April–June 2025 and the near collapse of the Deyr season of October–December 2025—have produced extreme rainfall deficits across much of the country. In several agro-pastoral zones, precipitation dropped to less than 10 mm, marking one of the driest seasons on record and triggering widespread crop failure, livestock losses, and declining river flows in key basins such as the Shabelle and Juba. The drought has unfolded rapidly, spreading from northern pastoral areas to southern agricultural regions within months and affecting millions of people nationwide. The crisis is further intensified by overlapping forms of drought—meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, socioeconomic, and ecological—demonstrating the systemic nature of climate vulnerability in Somalia.