The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has issued an urgent warning that more than 50 million people in West and Central Africa could face severe hunger in the coming months, driven by escalating conflict, mass displacement, economic instability, and increasingly extreme weather conditions.
Latest projections indicate that over 36 million people are currently struggling to access enough food. That figure is expected to surge to more than 52 million during the upcoming lean season from June to August. Among them, nearly three million face emergency-level hunger, and at least 2,600 people in Mali are on the brink of catastrophic food insecurity.
Despite the worsening crisis, funding remains alarmingly low. “Without immediate financial support, WFP will have no choice but to further reduce the number of people we can assist and cut back on food rations,” said Margot van der Velden, WFP Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
According to Ollo Sib, WFP Senior Research Adviser, the scale of food insecurity has soared dramatically—from just 4 percent of the population in 2019 to 30 percent today. Speaking from Dakar, he described conditions in affected areas as “extremely difficult and dire.” He highlighted communities in northern Ghana, where repeated droughts have forced farmers to replant crops multiple times—at a high cost due to soaring prices for seeds and fertilizers.
In northern Mali, where some of the worst conditions exist, pastoralists are struggling to survive. “Food prices have risen by 50 percent above the five-year average, while market access to sell livestock has become nearly impossible,” Sib reported.
The WFP attributes the crisis to a combination of armed conflict, soaring food prices, and climate shocks. Violence has displaced over 10 million people across the region, including 2 million refugees and asylum seekers in Chad, Cameroon, Mauritania, and Niger, and nearly 8 million internally displaced persons, mainly in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Food inflation, driven by high fuel and commodity costs, continues to worsen the crisis, while recurring floods and droughts diminish families’ ability to grow or purchase food.
The WFP is calling for 710 million dollars in urgent funding to sustain emergency food assistance through October. The agency aims to reach nearly 12 million people in 2025 but warns that five million could lose access to life-saving aid if resources do not materialize.
Alongside emergency relief, the WFP stressed the importance of long-term investment in resilience and sustainable development. Since 2018, it has partnered with regional governments to restore over 300,000 hectares of land, improving food security for more than four million people across 3,400 villages.
The agency is urging international donors and national governments to support these efforts to break the cycle of hunger and reduce future dependence on aid.