The Cameroon Country Director of the World Food Programme, WFP; Gianluca Ferrera has stated that despite humanitarian efforts, Cameroon continues to face a significant challenge with food security.
WFP officials raising alarm over shortfalls in funding
He was speaking on December 5,2025 during a WFP Cameroon organised brunch with the media in Yaounde.
He said a comparison of food analyses since the start of WFP’s Country Strategic Plan (spanning 2022 – 2026) shows an increase in the number of people facing food insecurity and rated as being in crisis, insecurity or famine.
The Harmonised Framework report is mentioned to have stated that approximately 2.6 million people were projected to be severely food insecure between June and August 2025, compared to 2.4 million in the same period in 2022. The greatest hit are the Far North, Northwest and Southwest Regions accounting for 58 percent of severely food-insecure people.
The WFP Country Director outlined some of the causes of increased food insecurity to include severe flooding that has led to production and livelihood losses, increases in staple food prices, and conflict. He revealed that the cost of food in Cameroon increased by 6.8 percent in June 2025 over the same month in the previous year.
On the other hand, he told reporters that child malnutrition continues to be a significant public health concern, particularly in regions affected by conflicts. He noted that nationally, 29 percent of children under the age of five are affected by stunting. The 2022 SMART nutrition survey is mentioned to have found alarming levels of chronic malnutrition, with stunting rates in children ranging from 32.1 percent in Adamawa to 39.4 percent in the East Region.
Global Acute Malnutrition, GAM rates are also elevated in these regions, reaching 8 percent in some areas. Further analysis, Gianluca stated, revealed particularly severe malnutrition conditions among refugee populations: acute malnutrition rates among children under five ranged from 10 percent among those living outside refugee camps in the North to 17.4 percent in camps in Adamawa and East Regions.
Documentation provided to the media state that a joint nutrition screening conducted by WFP and the Government in March 2025 revealed that almost 30 percent of children under five across 14 health districts in the Far North Region suffered from moderate or severe acute malnutrition.
Remarking that the primary driver of malnutrition is limited economic capacity, Gianluca said according to the 2021 Fill the Nutrient Gap study in Cameroon, 48 percent of households (up to 70 percent in the Far North and East Regions) do not have the means to afford a nutritious diet. Additionally, poor dietary practices and low levels of nutrition awareness exacerbate the situation.
Concerning security updates, the WFP Country Director said between January and October 2025, the security situation was marked by counter insurgency operations by the state security forces as well as hit and run and Improvised Explosive Device attacks by non-state armed groups.
Gianluca said in the Far North, there was an escalation of militant activities compared to 2024 as the non-state armed groups employed enhanced tactical strategies such as drone surveillance and attacks. He said it came out that June 2025 was the deadliest month of the year for state security forces in that region.
It was disclosed that while the Southwest Region showed moderate and stable security incidents, the Northwest experienced an increase compared to the same period in 2024. Furthermore, in July 2025, non-state armed groups enforced a localised lockdown of economic activities and vehicular movement along the main transport route connecting Mezam and Ngoketunjia Divisions of the Northwest Region thereby disrupting food movement and distributions in Ngoketunjia, Bui and Donga-Mantung Divisions.
In addition, non-state armed groups called for a six-week lockdown in September and October to disrupt school resumption and activities related to the presidential election in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. Gianluca noted that all these aggravates food insecurity to people in Cameroon coupled with a drastic drop in funding to sustain emergency food assistance and nutrition interventions to communities affected by the crisis. He reiterated that WFP urgently need US 67.5 million dollars between December 2025 and May 2026 to maintain life-saving operations in the country.
By Nformi Sonde Kinsai
