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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing: West Africa Food Insecurity-WFP - UNHCR
Food insecurity in West Africa could leave 43 million at risk as COVID hits: WFP / UNHCR
Well over 40 million people across West Africa face desperate food shortages in coming months, twice as many as before the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
Appealing for continued support from the international community for the agency’s global aid effort, WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs warned that the new coronavirus risks weakening already vulnerable populations that have fled armed conflict and endured climate change emergencies.
An estimated 12 million children under five years old could be acutely malnourished in the lean season from June to August, up from 8.2 million in the same period last year.
The alert follows a similar warning from the UN agency about a potentially massive spike in global food insecurity in East Africa, as a direct result of the pandemic.
“We must sustain our assistance across the region,” Ms. Byrs said. “Especially in places such as Central Sahel, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.”
During the lean season in June and August, more than 21 million people across West Africa “will struggle to feed themselves”, she explained, adding Gambia and Benin to the list of countries in need.
“An additional 20 million people could struggle to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in the next six months, doubling the number of food-insecure to 43 million in this region,” she said.
Highlighting people’s vulnerabilities, Babar Baloch from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), described West and central Africa as “one of largest displacement situations in Africa…we are talking about 5.6 million internally displaced people, more than 1.3 million refugees and 1.6 million stateless (people).”
The UN refugee agency has repeatedly called for greater support for increasing numbers of people forced to flee for their lives amid renewed conflict in West Africa’s turbulent Sahel and Lake Chad region.
Burkina Faso has also witnessed massive displacement - of more than 838,000 people since January 2019 – a figure which keeps climbing with each passing day.
In recent weeks, the agency said that armed groups had targeted thousands of Malian refugees sheltering in camps near the border of Burkina Faso and Mali.
On Monday, the agency condemned attacks on 2 May on Malian refugees in Burkina Faso – “reportedly by the country’s security forces”, in Mentao refugee camp in which at least 32 people were injured.
The camp is located in Burkina Faso’s volatile Sahel region close to the border with Mali and hosts some 6,500 refugees, UNHCR said in a statement.
For WFP the priority continues to be to focus on the most vulnerable individuals.
They include “the urban poor - who live hand-to-mouth – (who) are most at risk”, Ms. Byrs said, highlighting how COVID-19 travel restrictions had compromised the transport of supplies and the functioning of open-air markets that serve most people, resulting in price increases in some countries.
Movement restrictions could also affect farmers as the planting season approaches, WFP said in a statement, warning that “an inadequate response” to current needs “would put the future well-being of millions of people in the region at stake, particularly women and young children”.
It could also lead to civil unrest in parts of a region already challenged by insecurity and violent extremism, the agency said, before adding that it was seeking to overcome challenges in partnership with the authorities.
A significant problem is the halt in school meal distribution, which has affected 18 million pupils supported through Government-led programmes and 2.2 million schoolchildren in WFP-supported schools.
“When Governments have had to close schools and stop (serving) school meals, we have worked with them,” said Ms. Byrs. “We are working with them, to organize distribution points for the most vulnerable families who can take food rations so that they aren’t penalized, as schools have been forced to shut, in line with confinement measures.”
“Quand les gouvernements ont dû fermer les écoles et arrêter les repas scolaires, nous avons travaillé avec eux, nous travaillons avec eux, pour organiser les points de distribution, pour les familles les plus vulnérables (puissant) prendre des rations afin de ne pas les pénaliser, étant donné qu’on est obligés de fermer les écoles pour des questions de confinement.”
She added: “We have put in place monitoring and evaluation systems to help us to target the most at-risk populations, and we do that with partners, with Governments of course, and the international humanitarian community, in the largest sense of the term.”
“Nous avons mis en place des systèmes de surveillance, des systèmes d’évaluation pour nous permettre de cibler et de surveiller les populations les plus à risque, et ça nous faisons avec des partenaires, avec des gouvernements, bien sûr, et avec la communauté humanitaire internationale dans le sens le plus large du terme.”
WFP urgently requires an additional US$ 574 million to provide crucial assistance for the next six months in West Africa. These requirements are likely to increase in the coming weeks as the impact of COVID-19 is fully analysed.
- Wide shot: exterior, United Nations Geneva, main entrance with UN flag and building in background.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP): “Over 21 million people across West Africa will struggle to feed themselves this coming lean season between June and August without sustained assistance. WFP estimates that an additional 20 million people could struggle to feed themselves due to the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in the next six months, doubling the number of food-insecure to 43 million in this region.”
- Medium shot: UN Geneva and UN flag alley behind gates at UN Geneva, filmed from the Place des Nations. A motorcyclist passes from left to right.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) Babar Baloch, spokesperson, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): “West and central Africa is one of largest displacement situations in Africa; I mean we are talking about 5.6 million internally displaced people, more than 1.3 million refugees and 1.6 million stateless.”
- Medium shot: flag alley, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP): “We must sustain our assistance across the region. Especially in places such as Central Sahel, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Cameroon.”
- Medium shot: UN Geneva flag alley, with UN flag in background.
- SOUNDBITE (FR) Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP) : “Quand les gouvernements ont dû fermer les écoles et arrêter les repas scolaires, nous avons travaillé avec eux, nous travaillons avec eux, pour organiser les points de distribution, pour les familles les plus vulnérables (puissant) prendre des rations afin de ne pas les pénaliser, étant donné qu’on est obligés de fermer les écoles pour des questions de confinement.”
- Wide shot, UN flag alley, UN Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (FR) Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson, World Food Programme (WFP) : “Nous avons mis en place des systèmes de surveillance, des systèmes d’évaluation pour nous permettre de cibler et de surveiller les populations les plus à risque, et ça nous faisons avec des partenaires, avec des gouvernements, bien sûr, et avec la communauté humanitaire internationale dans le sens le plus large du terme.”
- Medium shot, UN flag flying at UN Geneva.
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Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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