From insight to action: an update on mortality patterns in Somalia
New study estimates that 71,000 drought-related “excess” deaths may have occurred in Somalia between 2022-2024

Highlights
This report, the fifth and final in a planned series of reports on mortality across Somalia, provides a retrospective analysis of the effect of the drought on population mortality in 2024 and offers forecasts based on different scenarios for the last 5 months of 2024.
The estimates suggest that between January 2022 and June 2024, this drought crisis caused 71,100 excess deaths, with 41% of these deaths occurring in children younger than 5 years.
The ongoing drought crisis appears as high as the previous one (2017-2018) in terms of mortality toll.
During 2022-2024, notable differences in death rate were evident across Somalia, with the northeast regions experiencing relatively low mortality despite high levels of food insecurity, and south-central regions including Banadir, Bay and Lower Shabelle seeing the majority of excess deaths.
With these estimates, the report suggests that the current crisis is virtually over and was as severe as the drought of 2017-2018.
