55 million individuals to endure starvation disaster this 12 months in central and west Africa, UN warns | EUROtoday

Some 55 million persons are set to endure “crisis” stage starvation this 12 months in Central and West Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned, as humanitarian help cuts from the US and different nations take maintain.

Four nations – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger – account for 77 per cent of that the meals insecurity, with some 15,000 individuals in Nigeria at the moment vulnerable to meals “catastrophe,” or famine-level starvationfor the primary time in practically a decade.

Conflict is a key danger think about these nations, together with with the jihadist Boko Haram. The escalating impacts of the local weather disaster can also be contributing to the humanitarian state of affairs, with recurrent excessive climate occasions – together with floods and droughts – devastating the farming actions that make use of roughly 60 % of the workforce in West and Central Africa.

In 2025, for instance, torrential rains and extreme flooding affected greater than 841,000 individuals throughout the area, with Nigeria (334,000 affected) and Niger (305,000) among the many hardest hit.

The humanitarian sector has then largely been left helpless within the face of those escalating humanitarian challenges on account of cuts to abroad help from rich nations.

In 2025, WFP solely obtained 41 per cent of the $2bn (£1.48bn) it required to fulfill wants in West and Central Africa – and the company says it urgently wants some $453m (£335m) over the following six months to proceed offering life-saving humanitarian help throughout the area.

“Now is not the time to stop food assistance,” stated 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.”

Nigeria is on the centre of the disaster in West and Central Africa, with some 35 million individuals projected to expertise acute and extreme meals insecurity in the course of the 2026 lean season.

This week, WFP Nigeria introduced that – with out pressing funding – the company is about to solely be capable of attain 72,000 individuals in February, representing a critical discount from the 1.3 million assisted in the course of the 2025 lean season.

In Borno State, which is on the coronary heart of the battle with Boko Haram in northeast Nigeriasome 150 clinics treating malnutrition have been closed in July 2025, leaving 300,000 kids vulnerable to extreme malnutrition.

But the strain on WFP providers is in no way restricted to Nigeria, with the company additionally lowering the variety of individuals it’s planning to help in neighboring Cameroon by round 60 per cent this 12 months.

More broadly, WFP – which is an company of the UN, and thought of the world’s largest humanitarian company – is anticipating to solely attain round half of the 110 million food-insecure individuals it had initially deliberate to succeed in in 2026 as a result of help cuts from rich nations.

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