Somali health officials reported Tuesday that diphtheria cases and deaths have risen sharply this year amid dwindling vaccine supplies and declining foreign aid.
The National Institute of Health has recorded more than 1,600 infections and 87 deaths so far in 2025, compared with 838 cases and 56 deaths recorded throughout 2024, according to its director general, Hussein Abdukar Muhidin.
Diphtheria, a bacterial disease preventable through vaccination and can lead to swollen glands, breathing difficulties, and fever, and mainly affects children.
Although immunisation rates have improved in recent years, hundreds of thousands of Somali children remain without adequate protection.
One displaced mother, Deka Mohamed Ali, said all four of her unvaccinated children fell sick after escaping fighting in the central town of Ceeldheere three months ago.
Her 9 year old child recovered while her 8 year old son died, while two toddlers are now receiving treatment in Mogadishu. “I didn’t know it was diphtheria,” she explained from her 3 year old’s hospital bedside.
Health Minister Ali Haji Adam noted that a global shortage has limited Somalia’s ability to purchase vaccines, while U.S. funding cuts have disrupted distribution.
He said the United States had been Somalia’s leading humanitarian donor until earlier this year, when President Donald Trump halted most foreign assistance, leaving the country’s largely donor supported health system under severe strain.
