The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that life-saving food and nutrition assistance in Central Sahel and Nigeria will halt in April 2025 without urgent funding.

This warning comes as the lean season – the period between harvests when hunger peaks – is anticipated to arrive earlier than usual this year across the Sahel region.

Millions, including refugees and internally displaced persons, still rely on WFP’s food assistance for survival, according to a recent statement by the organisation.

In April 2025, funding shortfalls will force WFP to suspend food and nutrition assistance for two million crisis-affected 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 said it urgently required $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. “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 the grips of an acute food security and nutrition crisis.

An estimated 52.7 million women, men, and children will experience acute hunger between June and August 2025.

This includes 3.4 million in emergency food insecurity (IPC-Phase 4) across the Sahel region and 2,600 in catastrophic hunger (IPC-Phase 5) 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.

Despite the ever-increasing needs in West and Central Africa, the proportion of the population facing extreme hunger (IPC Phases 4 and 5) is projected to increase by over 20 per cent by June 2025. However, the region remains chronically underfunded.

In Nigeria, the prolonged humanitarian crisis, worsened by high inflation and weather-related shocks, is endangering the lives of children, pregnant women, and entire communities.

During the June-August lean season, 33.1 million Nigerians are expected to face severe food shortages, with the North-East bearing a particularly heavy burden, with 4.8 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe facing acute hunger – an increase from 4.3 million in 2023.