The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that without urgent resources, millions of vulnerable people in West and Central Africa are facing another devastating year. During the June–August 2026 lean season, 55 million people are projected to endure crisis levels of hunger or worse, with over 13 million children expected to suffer from malnutrition.
Analysis from the Cadre Harmonisé, the region’s equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), indicates that more than three million people will experience emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) in 2026—over double the 1.5 million in 2020. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger account for 77 percent of these figures, including 15,000 people in Nigeria’s Borno State at risk of catastrophic hunger (IPC-5) for the first time in nearly a decade.
Sarah Longford, WFP Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa, emphasized that humanitarian aid is a stabilizing force in volatile regions. She highlighted that reduced funding in 2025 has exacerbated hunger and malnutrition, increasing the risk of unrest, displacement, and conflict. Without immediate support, communities may struggle to cope with rising food insecurity.
A combination of escalating conflict, mass displacement, and economic instability has driven the current hunger crisis. In Mali, areas receiving reduced food rations experienced a 64 percent surge in acute hunger, while communities receiving full rations saw a 34 percent decrease. In Nigeria, funding shortfalls forced WFP to scale down nutrition programs last year, affecting more than 300,000 children and causing malnutrition levels in several northern states to deteriorate from “serious” to “critical.”
The region’s ongoing funding gap threatens to worsen the crisis. In Cameroon, more than half a million vulnerable people risk losing access to life-saving assistance without immediate support. In Nigeria, WFP will only be able to reach 72,000 people in February 2026, a sharp drop from the 1.3 million assisted during the 2025 lean season.
Despite these challenges, WFP programs have consistently delivered measurable impacts when adequately funded. Initiatives such as land restoration in the Sahel generate up to USD 30 for every dollar spent. Since 2018, WFP and communities have rehabilitated 300,000 hectares of farmland across five countries, benefiting over four million people in more than 3,400 villages.
WFP’s interventions also include infrastructure development, school meal programs, nutrition support, capacity building, and seasonal aid. These programs help families cope with extreme weather and security risks, stabilize local economies, and reduce dependency on humanitarian assistance.
Longford stressed the need for a paradigm shift in 2026, calling on national governments and partners to invest in preparedness, anticipatory action, and resilience-building to break the cycle of hunger for future generations.
To sustain life-saving assistance across West and Central Africa, WFP urgently requires over USD 453 million in funding over the next six months.
