The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that more than 24 million people across the Sahel region of Africa are in critical need of life-saving aid, as escalating violence, climate shocks, and a severe funding shortage push millions to the brink of survival. OCHA warns that donor contributions have hit a ten-year low, forcing aid agencies to slash rations or halt critical operations entirely.
“They are mothers who cannot feed their children, families who have fled for their lives seeking safety with nothing, children who have not seen the inside of a classroom in years,” OCHA said in a statement.
“Behind every number are people with lives, stories and dreams, and the world needs to do more to help them.”
On Wednesday, the UN published the 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Overview (HNRO) for the Sahel, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the crisis unfolding in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Far North Cameroon, and Northeast Nigeria. This report offers a stark warning about the consequences if the international community does not step up.
Armed groups have expanded their reach across the Central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin regions, uprooting communities and shutting down schools and health centers. Entire areas are left without any form of government or protection. Nearly 12,900 schools have closed due to insecurity, depriving over 2.3 million children of education and exposing them to exploitation and recruitment.
In the Central Sahel, violence is spreading beyond its traditional borders in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, rapidly spilling over into coastal West Africa—rendering the Sahel one of the main epicenters of violence in Africa. This violence and instability are overwhelming borders, straining local economies and displacing vulnerable people.
OCHA warns that climate shocks are exacerbating the situation. The Sahel is warming faster than the global average, rainfall has become more erratic, and extreme weather events are occurring more frequently. In 2025 alone, devastating floods affected 590,000 people in the Sahel, while prolonged droughts and desertification destroyed farmland on which millions depend for their livelihoods.
The Sahel is also experiencing one of the world’s major hunger crises. During the lean season from June to August, 15.4 million people are expected to face crisis levels of hunger or worse. More than 1.5 million of them could fall into emergency conditions, meaning they cannot meet their basic food needs without urgent outside assistance.
The UN humanitarian office cautions that these figures could climb higher, as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East is driving up global fuel, fertilizer, and food commodity prices. This has direct consequences for Sahelian families, who are already under immense pressure.
While rising fertilizer costs can wipe out an entire planting season, higher fuel prices make food and aid more expensive to deliver just as the lean season begins and food needs peak.
“These are not distant economic trends; they translate directly into empty plates,” OCHA said.
Despite growing needs, humanitarian funding for the Sahel has collapsed to its lowest level in a decade. In 2025, only 29 percent of the required funding was received. This forced aid organizations to suspend services, pull back from some areas, and make impossible choices about who receives help and who does not.
"The people of the Sahel are not on the sideline of a global crisis, they are at the very heart of one of the world's most severe and neglected emergencies," said Charles Bernimolin, the regional head of OCHA for West and Central Africa.
"Every funding gap has a human cost. When we cut a program, a child loses a meal, women and girls protection, a family loses hope. We cannot allow a financing collapse to become a death sentence for millions of people."
Humanitarian organizations are already adapting by expanding cash assistance, strengthening early warning systems, and investing in local organizations that reach people where others cannot. However, adaptation has its limits.
"Solutions and capacity exist. We need further political will and funding to match the scale of the crisis," Bernimolin said.
"We are calling on donors, governments and regional institutions to act with urgency. The people of the Sahel cannot wait."
As humanitarian needs in the Sahel region continue to exceed available resources, OCHA is urging donors to provide flexible, predictable, and sufficient funding to sustain life-saving operations.
The UN humanitarian office is also calling on governments to protect civilians and guarantee unimpeded humanitarian access, and on regional bodies to help address the structural drivers of instability.
Further information
Full text: Sahel 2026 Humanitarian Needs & Requirements Overview, Summary, OCHA, report, published June 3, 2026
https://reliefweb.int/attachments/89654072-233f-4f4b-b2e3-2fac742f96d6/Sahel-2026-HNRO-ENG-TwoPager.pdf