CHILDREN in Somalia are “on the edge” as hunger spreads, the United Nations has warned.

The United States and Israel’s illegal and unprovoked war on Iran has worsened the crisis, according to UN children’s agency Unicef.

Aid workers at the Ladan displacement camp in the town of Dollow in southern Somalia say the raging war in the Middle East, more than 1,800 miles away, has made their work harder, disrupting supplies and sending fuel costs soaring.

Unicef says it has $15.7 million (around £11.8m) worth of lifesaving supplies, including therapeutic food, vaccines, and mosquito nets,in transit or being prepared for delivery to Somalia. 

But those shipments are now uncertain.

Transport costs could rise by up to 60 per cent and even double on some routes, while delays caused by rerouting and backlog become more likely, the UN agency says.

Somalis have been forced to flee the drought that has ravaged much of the Horn of Africa country after four failed rainy seasons.

Their crops and livestock devastated, they turn up at the camp, often with nothing but their children.

Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said on Thursday that the Iran war had been a “shock to the system” for the agency’s work on the ground in Somalia.

“It means that we can’t get supplies in as easily and that fuel costs are really high,” she said. “It means that more and more children will suffer.”

At the same time, more than 400 health and nutrition facilities have closed over the past year across the country, due mainly to US funding cuts. Aid agencies warn that more closures could follow.

“What we’re seeing is that children are really on the edge already,” Ms Russell said.

Ladan deputy chairman Abdifatah Mohamed Osman said: “We used to receive assistance from humanitarian agencies, but that stopped in September 2025. 

“Now the little support we get is mainly therapeutic food for malnourished children.”