Humanitarian aid cuts push millions deeper into hunger in West and Central Africa

• Amid rising violence, population displacement

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warns that without urgent resources and action, the most vulnerable people in West and Central Africa are headed for yet another dire year. A staggering 55 million people in the region are expected to endure crisis levels of hunger, or worse, during the June– August 2026 lean season. Over 13 million children are also expected to suffer from malnutrition in 2026.

The latest analysis from the Cadre Harmonisé – the equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for West and Central Africa – also pro- jects that over three million people will face emergency levels of food insecurity (Phase 4) this year – more than double the 1.5 million in 2020. Four countries – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger- account for 77 percent of the food insecurity 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.

“Vital humanitarian aid is a transformative and stabilizing force in volatile contexts,” said Sarah Longford, Deputy Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “The reduced funding we saw in 2025 has deepened hunger and malnutrition across the region. As needs outpace funding, so too does the risk of young people falling into desperation. It’s critical that we support communities in crisis, so that rampant hunger doesn’t drive further unrest, displacement and conflict across the region.”

A toxic combination of surging conflict, displacement, and eco- nomic turmoil has been driving hunger in the region, but reductions in humanitarian assistance are now pushing communities beyond their ability to cope.

In Mali, when families received reduced food rations, areas experienced a 64 percent surge in acute hunger (IPC 3+) since 2023, while communities that received full rations experienced a 34 percent decrease. But continued insecurity in Mali has disrupted critical supply lines to major cities – including for food – with 1.5 million of the most vulnerable Malians expected to face crisis levels of hunger. In Nigeria, last year’s funding shortfalls forced WFP to scale down its nutrition programmes, affecting more than 300,000 children; malnutrition levels in several northern states have since deteriorated from “serious” to “critical.”