The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) sounded the alarm on Friday as ongoing conflict, displacement, economic deterioration and recurrent extreme weather events in the Sahel push millions of people towards emergency levels of hunger. While humanitarian needs are at historic highs, the resources to mount an effective response for life-saving operations at scale are not keeping pace.
“We are at a tipping point and millions of lives are at stake,” said Margot van der Velden, WFP’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, in a statement.
“Without immediate funding, WFP will be forced to scale down even further, both in the number of people reached and the size of food rations distributed.”
Van der Velden said the consequences are devastating for communities already in crisis, adding that many have been forced to sell their last assets and skip meals, risking long-term effects on their health and lives.
According to the latest food security analysis by the Cadre Harmonisé, more than 36 million people in West Africa and parts of Central Africa are struggling to meet their basic food and nutritional needs, a number expected to rise to a staggering 52 million during the upcoming lean season, including nearly 3 million in emergency (IPC4) and 2,600 people in Mali's Menaka region facing catastrophic hunger (IPC5).
In the most vulnerable countries of the Sahel, 35.6 million people are acutely food insecure (crisis level or worse), including 25 million in Nigeria, 3.1 million in Cameroon, 2.7 million in Burkina Faso, 1.5 million in Niger, 2.4 million in Chad and 900,000 in Mali.
From June to August 2025 - the lean season - 45.9 million people are estimated to be acutely food insecure (crisis level or worse) in the six most affected Sahel countries, including 33.1 million in Nigeria, 2.7 million in Cameroon, 2.7 million in Burkina Faso, 1.5 million in Mali, 2.2 million in Niger, and 3.7 million in Chad.
Ongoing conflict has forcibly displaced more than 10 million of the region's most vulnerable people, including 2.4 million refugees and asylum seekers in Chad, Cameroon, Mauritania and Niger. Nearly 8 million more are internally displaced, mainly in Nigeria and Cameroon. Many have been cut off from their livelihoods - fleeing farms and pastures in search of food and shelter.
WFP said food inflation, exacerbated by rising food and fuel costs, is also pushing crisis hunger levels to new highs in Ghana, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire, while food prices continue to rise in Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Nigeria, making nutritious food unaffordable for the most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the UN agency said recurrent extreme weather events, particularly in the Central Sahel region, Lake Chad Basin and Central African Republic, are undermining families' ability to feed themselves. Communities across the Sahel are facing unprecedented droughts in some areas and floods in others, resulting in the loss of crops and livestock. Millions of farmers in the Lake Chad Basin are concerned about not having enough food to meet their basic needs.
WFP aims to reach nearly 12 million women, men and children in the Sahel this year with critical relief and nutritional support to help the most vulnerable survive hunger shocks when they inevitably occur.
In 2025, WFP has so far reached 3 million of the most vulnerable people with life-saving assistance - including refugees, internally displaced people, malnourished children under five, and pregnant and lactating women and girls.
Between June and August 2024, funding shortfalls forced WFP to reach only 7.3 million people in the Sahel - just 60 percent of the agency's target - with many receiving reduced rations. The UN agency warns that five million people are at risk of losing assistance altogether unless urgent funding is received.
Insufficient funding also threatens the ability of the WFP-managed UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to provide emergency support to the humanitarian community in Mali and Nigeria. UNHAS provides essential aviation services and logistics support to ensure that frontline aid workers and life-saving supplies reach those most in need.
WFP urgently requires US$710 million to continue delivering life-saving assistance to the most critical populations in the region for the next six months (until October 2025).
Beyond emergency food assistance, the UN agency is urging governments and partners to invest in sustainable solutions aimed at building resilience and reducing long-term aid dependency.
"By leading the way and investing in early actions, and restoring ecosystems, we can protect vulnerable communities, save lives, reduce future humanitarian needs, and safeguard resilience gains across the Sahel," van der Velden added.
"We urge the international community to collectively enhance investments in building back ecosystems and strengthening local economies for communities to thrive; it costs little and prevents crises."
Armed conflict, deteriorating security, political instability, rising prices and widespread poverty are the main drivers of unprecedented humanitarian needs, particularly in the Central Sahel, which includes the countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and the Lake Chad Basin, which covers parts of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
The deepening humanitarian emergency is compounded by the effects of the climate crisis. Rapid climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as severe flooding. Devastating floods in 2024 affected more than six million people across the region, following extreme flooding in 2022.
This year, 33.1 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the six most affected countries, including Burkina Faso (5.9 million), Cameroon (3.3 million), Chad (7 million), Mali (6.4 million), Niger (2.7 million) and Nigeria (7.8 million).
The UN and its partners have called for $4.67 billion in 2025 to help 21.3 million of the most vulnerable people in Burkina Faso, Cameroon's Far North region, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
Editorial note: Facing extreme political pressure from the new United States administration, which denies climate change, the WFP has begun to avoid mentioning climate change and the link between the climate crisis and recurring extreme weather events in its recent statements. DONARE's reporting includes such contextual information, as does WFP's official climate change policy (https://www.wfp.org/publications/wfps-updated-climate-change-policy-2024).