The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has issued a stark warning that without urgent financial support, life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Central Sahel and Nigeria will be suspended by April 2025. The announcement underscores a worsening food security crisis across West Africa, exacerbated by an early arrival of the lean season, the period between harvests when hunger peaks. Millions of people, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), remain dependent on WFP’s aid for survival.
A funding shortfall will leave approximately two million crisis-affected individuals without essential food and nutrition assistance, worsening an already fragile humanitarian situation. The WFP has called for $620 million in urgent funding to maintain food support for vulnerable populations across the Sahel and Nigeria over the next six months. “The global shrinkage of foreign aid is posing a significant threat to our operations in Western Africa, especially in Central Sahel and Nigeria,” warned Margot van der Velden, WFP’s Regional Director for Western Africa.
She emphasized the broader consequences of inaction, noting that “food security is national security.” According to the latest Cadre Harmonisé regional food security analysis, released in December 2024, an estimated 52.7 million people in West Africa are expected to face acute hunger between June and August 2025. This includes 3.4 million in emergency food insecurity (IPC-Phase 4) across the Sahel and 2,600 individuals in catastrophic hunger (IPC-Phase 5) in northern Mali.
Conflict, climate change, and economic instability drive crisis
Without immediate financial intervention, millions of people across West Africa face heightened risks of malnutrition, starvation, and widespread instability, threatening not only individual lives but also the broader socio-economic stability of the region. The crisis is compounded by ongoing conflicts, economic disruptions, and climate-related disasters, which have severely weakened local food systems and livelihoods.
Humanitarian organizations warn that without adequate funding, the region could see rising mortality rates, increased displacement, and worsening conditions for already vulnerable populations, particularly children, pregnant women, and the elderly. As the situation continues to deteriorate, WFP is intensifying its efforts to secure urgent global support, emphasizing the critical need for immediate action to prevent famine-like conditions in several affected areas.
The agency is appealing to governments, international donors, and private sector partners to step in with emergency funding to sustain food assistance programs and mitigate further humanitarian fallout. Without sustained aid, the food security crisis in West Africa could spiral into a prolonged emergency, with long-term consequences for health, security, and development in the region. – By MENA Newswire News Desk.
