The European Commission has announced €235 million in humanitarian aid to support vulnerable populations across West and Central Africa, a move aimed at addressing worsening conflicts, food insecurity, and displacement. This was contained in a statement by Modestus.
The funding will target people affected by ongoing crises, including forcibly displaced persons, host communities, and hard-to-reach populations across the region. Of the total package, €75 million is earmarked for the Central Sahel, over €16.6 million for Cameroon, €22 million for the Central African Republic, more than €72 million for Chad, €4.8 million for Mauritania, €33 million for Nigeria, and over €6 million for coastal countries. An additional €6.4 million will support regional humanitarian interventions.
According to Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, west and central Africa is facing a storm of humanitarian crises, driven by conflict, poverty, hunger, instability, and climate shocks.
“Last year in Chad, I saw the human cost with my own eyes: families who had fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their homes lost, their livelihoods destroyed. For millions of people, humanitarian aid is not a choice. It is food on the table, clean water, medicine, shelter, and a chance for their children to learn again.
“The European Union will always stand with people in crisis, as a reliable and principled humanitarian partner, to save lives, ease suffering, and bring hope where it is needed most.”
The region continues to grapple with overlapping humanitarian emergencies largely driven by conflict, compounded by climate change and structural challenges linked to governance, population pressures, and access to land and resources. The Central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin remain the epicentres, with violence spilling into coastal states and triggering large-scale displacement within and across borders.
The ongoing crisis in Sudan is further straining Eastern Chad, while separate but persistent emergencies continue in North-West Nigeria, North-West and South-West Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.
