55m people to endure hunger crisis this year in central and west Africa, UN warns

Climate-vulnerable, impoverished communities are unable to get the help that they need as pressure on aid budgets shows no sign of abating

Some 55 million people are set to endure “crisis” level hunger this year in Central and West Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned, as humanitarian aid cuts from the US and other countries take hold.

Four countries – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger – account for 77 per cent of that the food insecurity, with some 15,000 people in Nigeria currently at risk of food “catastrophe,” or famine-level hunger, for the first time in nearly a decade.

Conflict is a key risk factor in these countries, including with the jihadist Boko Haram. The escalating impacts of the climate crisis is also contributing to the humanitarian situation, with recurrent extreme weather events - including floods and droughts - devastating the farming activities that employ roughly 60 percent of the workforce in West and Central Africa.

In 2025, for example, torrential rains and severe flooding affected more than 841,000 people across the region, with Nigeria (334,000 affected) and Niger (305,000) among the hardest hit.

The humanitarian sector has then largely been left helpless in the face of these escalating humanitarian challenges as a result of cuts to overseas aid from wealthy nations.

In 2025, WFP only received 41 per cent of the $2bn (£1.48bn) it required to meet needs in West and Central Africa - and the agency says it urgently needs some $453m (£335m) over the next six months to continue providing life-saving humanitarian assistance across the region.

“Now is not the time to stop food assistance,” said David Stevenson, WFP’s Nigeria Country Director. “This will lead to catastrophic humanitarian, security and economic consequences for the most vulnerable people who have been forced to flee their homes in search of food and shelter.

“Humanitarian solutions are still possible and are one of the last stabilising forces preventing mass displacement and regional spillover.”

People affected by floods are escorted through flood water in Maiduguri, Northeastern Nigeria (AFP/Getty)

Nigeria is at the centre of the crisis in West and Central Africa, with some 35 million people projected to experience acute and severe food insecurity during the 2026 lean season.

This week, WFP Nigeria announced that - without urgent funding - the agency is set to only be able to reach 72,000 people in February, representing a serious reduction from the 1.3 million assisted during the 2025 lean season.

In Borno State, which is at the heart of the conflict with Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, some 150 clinics treating malnutrition were closed in July 2025, leaving 300,000 children at risk of severe malnutrition.

But the pressure on WFP services is by no means limited to Nigeria, with the agency also reducing the number of people it is planning to assist in neighboring Cameroon by around 60 per cent this year.

More broadly, WFP - which is an agency of the UN, and considered the world’s largest humanitarian agency - is expecting to only reach around half of the 110 million food-insecure people it had originally planned to reach in 2026 due to aid cuts from wealthy nations.

This article was produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project