USG Fletcher Somalia visit - 29 April 2026

Description
STORY: OCHA / SOMALIA FLETCHER VISIT
TRT: 12:28
SOURCE: OCHA
RESTRICTIONS : PLEASE CREDIT OCHA ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: SOMALI / ENGLISH / MAI / NATS
DATELINE: 28 AND 29 APRIL 2026, MOGADISHU AND BAIDOA, SOMALIA

Shotlist
28 APRIL 2026, FEYNUS HEALTH AND NUTRITION CENTRE, MOGADISHU

1. Various shots, women waiting for health services.
2. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Halima Abdullahi Jeylaani:
“I came here this morning, because my daughter is malnourished and she needs supplements, like plumb nuts.”
3. Wide shot, pharmacist dispensing medications
4. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Halima Abdullahi Jeylaani:
“She has been vomiting and coughing, and sometimes she’s had a fever for the past three months.”
5. Wide shot, child given nutritional supplements
6. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Halima Abdullahi Jeylaani:
“I fled, because there was no water or food, I lost my husband and my children had nothing to eat.”
7. Various shots, children screening
8. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Maryan Abukar Abdi (Somali)
We were displaced due to the drought, and the river has dried up completely. In addition to this there were conflicts ongoing, my husband became ill. I fled to Mogadishu in search of help and now I live with relatives.
9. Wide shot, USG Fletcher meeting Maryan Abukar Abdi and her child.
10. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Maryan Abukar Abdi: 
“My son, Mohamed Abdullahi Ibrahim is 3 years old, who can not stand or sit properly, he is living with a disability.”
11. Pan right, USG Fletcher in a focus group with women at the Feynus Health and Nutrition Centre
12. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Raaxo Axmed Mohamed:
“We are displaced from a rural village due to conflicts and drought and now here in search of assistance.”
13. Zoom out, USG Fletcher in a focus group with women at the Feynus Health and Nutrition Centre
14. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Raaxo Axmed Mohamed:
“We live in a hard time, in this camp nobody gets three meals a day, normally people will be very lucky to have two meals a day and sometimes nothing.”
15. Various shots, activities at the health centre
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“The people in need know about the funding cuts. They are telling me that they know that we’ve cut. They know that they’re being left behind because of those cuts. So this is a really sobering situation, it’s a reminder of what happens when the world looks away, when the world decides to spend billions on conflict and not on those in greatest need; when the world loses its moral compass, when the world loses its kindness, its solidarity, and its bearings. And the women and girls I’m talking to here – for them these aren’t newspapers stories or media stories, these are issues of life and death.”

29 APRIL 2026, BAIDOA

17. Aerial shot, Abi Bilan displacement site
18. Various shots, Elbet 1 displacement site 
19. SOUNDBITE (Mai) Maryama Abdi Hussein :
“I came to this camp five months ago. Displaced due to failed rains of the last Deyr season. I was forced to flee due to the drought conditions and no harvest from our farms it was difficult to feed my children, my husband has also passed away.”
20. Wide shot, USG Fletcher conversing with Maryama Abdi Hussein
21. Various shots, Maryama and her kids, and USG Fletcher visiting her
22. Aerial shot, Abi Bilan displacement site, Baidoa
23. Various shot, USG Fletcher visiting health centre within the Elbet 1 displaement site
24. Various shots, USG Fletcher conversing with Habiiba Issaaq Ibrahim
25. SOUNDBITE (Mai) Habiiba Issaaq Ibrahim :
“My daughter was feeling good initially, taking supplements, but she got ill and hospitalized, due to malnutrition and inflammation of the body.”
26. Various shots, Habiiba Issaaq Ibrahim during her daughter health screening
27. SOUNDBITE (Mai) Habiiba Issaaq Ibrahim :
“To feed my kids, I normally look for cleaning jobs within Baidoa and that we get food. And that is how we get food in my family.”
28. Aerial shot, Abi Bilan displacement site, Baidoa
29. Various shots, Catara Ali Mohamed and her children in Elbet1 displacement site
30. SOUNDBITE (Mai) Catara Ali Mohamed:
“I fled from village, Barbaar, due to hunger and not getting my basic needs. And when we arrived here, we relied on my husband, who is a laborer, sometimes he gets some food and sometimes nothing.”
31. Various shots, Catara Ali Mohamed cooking
32. SOUNDBITE (Mai) Catara Ali Mohamed:
“Lately, there are no jobs for my husband, he is just at home, and we have nothing to eat.”
33. Various shots, USG Fletcher arriving at Bay Regional hospital in Baidoa
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“You are holding the line here. But the impact on your work, because as you say, those other medical facilities have been closed, that outer ring where people would normally go to- so the numbers that you’re dealing with are going up dramatically, but also people are getting to you later in the cycle, and often it’s too late then too respond. So, in the face of those challenges, what’s your message for the world?”
35. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Asma Aweys, Médecins Sans Frontières, Bay Regional Hospital, Baidoa:
“My message to the world is to ensure sustained financial support, collective action, strong action, to actually tackle all of these challenges that people are facing on a day-to-day basis, especially in the sector of health and humanitarian services.”
36. Various shots, hospital
37. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“So, three particular things that I’m learning here. Firstly, of course, that in crises like these, it’s women and girls that are bearing the brunt of what goes on. It’s mothers and babies.”
38. Zoom in, mother and daughter at the hospital
39. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Second thought: prioritization is a technocratic word – the stroke of a pen can from a finance minister, a political decision, further down the line, that means we then make tough, tough choices about who to fund, where to fund. But then those choices really hit the ground in places like this where those needs are then driven up.”
39. Various shots, hospital
40. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“And then the third point: we’re already seeing the impact here of that five, six weeks now, seven weeks of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It’s driving up fuel costs, it’s driving up food costs. You know, fuel costs here in Somalia have doubled in just a couple of weeks. And that means the costs for our partners, for UN human, for the NGOs, for people like Médecins Sans Frontières, trying to run a medical facility are going up astronomically. And then they have to make even more tough choices about which lives to save and who to turn away.”
41. Wide shot, patients at the hospital

Storyline
Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, is on a week-long visit to Somalia to spotlight the devastating and tangible impact of global funding shortfalls on people’s lives. People know “they’re being left behind because of those cuts,” he remarked. “It’s a reminder of what happens when the world looks away, when the world decides to spend billions on conflict and not on those in greatest need.”