ROME-The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) stated that food and nutrition assistance in Central Sahel and Nigeria will stop in April 2025. The warning coincided with the announcement that the lean season, the period between harvests when hunger peaks, is anticipated to arrive earlier than usual this year in the Sahel region.  Millions, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), still rely on WFP’s food assistance for survival.

 In April 2025, funding issues will force the WFP to suspend food and nutrition assistance for 2-million people, including Sudanese refugees in Chad, Malian refugees in Mauritania, internally displaced persons, and vulnerable food-insecure families in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.

 The UN food agency needs US$ 620 million to ensure continued support to crisis-affected people across the Sahel and in 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,” said Margot van der Velden, WFP’s Regional Director for Western Africa. “With millions expected to face emergency levels of hunger at the peak of the lean season, the world must step up support to prevent this situation from getting out of control. We need to act now to allow WFP to reach those in need with timely support. Inaction will have severe consequences for the region and beyond, as food security is national security,”

 The latest Cadre Harmonisé regional food security analysis, released in December 2024, shows that Western Africa is in danger of experiencing acute food security and nutrition crisis. An estimated 52.7 million women, men, and children are projected to experience acute hunger between June and August 2025. This includes 3.4 million in emergency food insecurity across the Sahel region and 2,600 in catastrophic hunger in northern Mali. The hunger crisis in West Africa is driven by conflict, displacement, economic crises, and severe climate shocks, with devastating floods in 2024 affecting over six million people across the region.

 The amount of the population facing extreme hunger is projected to increase by over 20 per cent by June 2025. The region also remains underfunded, leading the WFP to make the difficult decision to cut rations, effectively taking from the hungry to feed the starving. 

The WFP is working with national governements in hopes of finding a solution to the probelm.

Van der Velden stated, “The West and Central Africa region has long been neglected in terms of international funding and attention. We need a paradigm shift to reverse the worsening trend of hunger and its impact on vulnerable women, men, and children.”

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