The World Food Programme (WFP) issued a stark warning on Friday, stating that parts of Cameroon face catastrophic levels of hunger unless a critical funding gap of at least $67 million is urgently filled.
A Funding Crisis Threatens Progress
Speaking from the capital Yaoundé, Gianluca Ferrera, the WFP representative for Cameroon and Sao Tome and Principe, stressed that hard-won progress in combating hunger is now at severe risk. "Without this funding, most of the activities that WFP and partners have been implementing will have to stop, bringing forward a number of risks," he stated.
The financial situation is dire. In 2022, the WFP's operations in Cameroon were supported by $106 million. This year, that figure has plummeted to a mere $20 million, creating an unsustainable shortfall.
Multiple Crises Fuel a Neglected Emergency
Cameroon is grappling with a perfect storm of humanitarian challenges. A report earlier this year by the Norwegian Refugee Council labelled it the world's most neglected displacement crisis. The nation contends with the Boko Haram insurgency in the north, a separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions, and a significant influx of refugees from the Central African Republic in the east.
These man-made crises, exacerbated by climatic shocks, have forced over 2 million people from their homes internally. In total, more than 3.3 million people in Cameroon require urgent humanitarian assistance.
Immediate Consequences of the Shortfall
The lack of funds will have immediate and devastating consequences. Ferrera confirmed that, starting in January, over 52,000 children will lose access to vital school meals.
Furthermore, the WFP is being forced to scale down its operations drastically, with the risk of closing five of its offices in the country. This downsizing would put over half a million people at direct risk of losing essential food and nutritional support.
"So we may go backward instead of going forward," Ferrera lamented, highlighting the reversal of years of humanitarian work.
The global context of this funding crisis is significant. It follows an unprecedented withdrawal of U.S. foreign aid championed by the Trump administration, which totalled $64 billion in 2023. While the closure of USAID was celebrated by that administration, a Lancet medical study published in July credited USAID programmes with preventing an estimated 91 million deaths in the first two decades of this century alone.
