In May 2026, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published an overview of the 2026 humanitarian needs for the Sahel. The document provides an overview of humanitarian needs in the region and outlines the priorities for the response planned for 2026: Needs continue to grow under the combined effect of armed conflict, displacement, climate shocks and economic hardship, even as resources for humanitarian action are dwindling.
The 2026 Humanitarian Needs Overview for the Sahel covers Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Cameroon’s Far North, and Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states. In this geographical area marked by a strong interdependence of crises, OCHA estimates that 24.3 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2026. Humanitarian partners plan to reach 15.3 million people, but budget constraints are forcing them to focus their efforts on 8.3 million people with the most urgent needs. The cost of this response is estimated at $3.7 billion.
As Charles Bernimolin, OCHA’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, points out, “there is not a single crisis in the Sahel.” People are facing a succession of shocks that are accumulating and gradually exhausting their resilience capacities. Insecurity continues to fuel forced displacement, the effects of climate change further undermine livelihoods, while poverty, food insecurity and limited access to basic social services increase the vulnerability of millions of people. In this context, crises go far beyond national borders and underscore the need for a regional approach that combines humanitarian action, peacebuilding and sustainable development.
A multidimensional crisis that continues to worsen
The deteriorating security situation remains the main driver of this crisis. For several years, armed groups have expanded their presence in the central Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, turning localized hotbeds of violence into a regional crisis with growing repercussions on West Africa’s coastal countries. In 2025, more than 5,800 security incidents have been recorded in the region, causing nearly 16,000 deaths.
According to OCHA, the violence continues to lead to mass displacement of people, disrupt economic activities and limit access to essential services such as health and education. This insecurity has caused one of the world’s largest displacement crises. At the end of 2025, the Sahel had 5.8 million forcibly displaced people, including 2.6 million refugees and asylum seekers. Host communities, often vulnerable themselves, are seeing their resources dwindle in the face of the continued arrival of displaced populations, increasing tensions around access to land, water and social services.
Climate change acts as a powerful crisis multiplier. The Sahel is warming about one and a half times faster than the global average, while prolonged droughts alternate with more intense rains and devastating floods. These phenomena destroy crops, reduce the livelihoods of rural populations and aggravate tensions between farmers and herders for access to natural resources. In 2025, more than 590,000 people have been affected by flooding in the region.
The humanitarian consequences are considerable. Between June and August 2026, 15.4 million people are expected to face acute food insecurity, including more than 1.5 million in emergencies. At the same time, 2.6 million children are acutely malnourished and nearly 12,900 schools remain closed due to insecurity, depriving more than 2.3 million children of their right to education. Health systems, already fragile, are also struggling to meet the growing needs of displaced populations while facing several recurrent epidemics.
Constantly decreasing resources
While humanitarian needs are at an unprecedented level, the means available to meet them continue to shrink. The OCHA report highlights that the humanitarian community is facing one of the most significant funding crises in recent years. In 2025, humanitarian response plans in the six countries covered by the Humanitarian Overview received only 29.5% of the required funding, their lowest level in a decade. For 2026, humanitarian partners are requesting $3.7 billion to help 15.3 million people, but by mid-May, only 21% of the funds needed had been mobilized.
This dwindling resources is forcing humanitarian organizations to make difficult choices. In several countries, they have had to reduce their geographical presence, suspend some activities or refocus their interventions on populations with the most critical needs. This reorientation does not reflect a decrease in needs, but rather the impossibility of responding to all requests for assistance with the resources currently available.
Faced with this situation, humanitarian actors are implementing a new approach, called Humanitarian Reset, aimed at maximizing the impact of each intervention. The goal is to focus efforts on activities that immediately save lives while improving the effectiveness of the response. This strategy includes better targeting of beneficiaries, increased use of multi-use cash transfers, increased anticipatory action to intervene before crises escalate, and strengthening the role of national and local organizations, which are often the first to reach the most remote communities.
The paper also points out that operational constraints are not only financial. In several areas of the Sahel, humanitarian access is increasingly limited by insecurity, administrative restrictions, logistical difficulties and obstacles to the movement of humanitarian personnel and goods. These constraints make it very difficult to deliver aid and reduce the ability of organizations to reach some of the most vulnerable populations.
A call for collective mobilization
In this context, OCHA insists on the need for a renewed commitment from all partners. It calls on donors to increase their contributions and prioritise more flexible and predictable funding to enable humanitarian actors to maintain essential services and adapt to an ever-changing environment. It also calls on governments to strengthen the protection of civilians, facilitate safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and respect international humanitarian law and human rights. Regional organizations are encouraged to continue their efforts to prevent conflicts and promote durable solutions to the root causes of instability.
OCHA also recalls that humanitarian action, as essential as it is, cannot on its own respond to the root causes of instability in the Sahel. Reducing humanitarian needs also means investing in building community resilience, access to basic social services, climate change adaptation, governance and peacebuilding. It is in this complementarity between humanitarian action, development and peace that the prospect of a more stable future for the region lies.