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TWN
Info Service on UN Sustainable Development (Jan26/01) Penang, 19 Jan (Kanaga Raja) — The West and Central Africa region is on the brink of a severe humanitarian emergency in 2026, with a staggering 55 million people projected to face crisis levels of hunger or worse during the June-August lean season, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). The UN agency warned that without urgent resources and coordinated action, already fragile communities will be pushed deeper into hardship, and more than 13 million children are expected to suffer from malnutrition over the course of the year, underscoring the scale and urgency of the region’s escalating food insecurity. According to WFP, the latest analysis from the Cadre Harmonise – the equivalent of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) for West and Central Africa – also projects 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. In particular, 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, WFP 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,” she said. A toxic combination of surging conflict, displacement, and economic turmoil has been driving hunger in the region, but reductions in humanitarian assistance are now pushing communities beyond their ability to cope, WFP said in a news release. 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, said the UN agency. Meanwhile, it said 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.” The current dire funding outlook threatens to deepen the hunger crisis even further, WFP warned. In Cameroon, without urgent funding, more than half a million vulnerable people are at risk of being cut off from life-saving assistance in the coming weeks. In Nigeria, WFP will only be able to reach 72,000 people in February, a drastic reduction from the 1.3 million assisted during the 2025 lean season. With adequate funding, WFP has consistently delivered measurable impacts that improve food security through resilience, social protection, and anticipatory action, it said. For example, WFP said that land restoration in the Sahel generates up to US$30 for every dollar spent. Since 2018, WFP and communities have rehabilitated 300,000 hectares of farmland across five countries to support more than four million people in over 3,400 villages. WFP programmes in the region have supported infrastructure development, school meals, nutrition, capacity- building and seasonal aid to help families manage extreme weather and security risks, stabilize local economies and reduce dependency on aid, it further said. “To break the cycle of hunger for future generations, we need a paradigm shift in 2026. National governments and their partners must increase investment in preparedness, anticipatory action, and resilience-building to empower communities,” said Longford. WFP urgently requires more than US$453 million over the next six months to continue providing life-saving humanitarian assistance across the region. +
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