Cameroon is a lower-middle-income country, ranking 155th out of 193 countries in the 2025 Human Development Index.

Over 23 percent of Cameroonians live below the international poverty line (US$2.15 per person per day), and extreme poverty could reach 25 percent by 2026 – affecting 8 million people. 

Rates are particularly high in rural areas of the northern regions, where structural underdevelopment and recurring climatic shocks – including floods and prolonged dry spells – hinder people’s ability to thrive.

High poverty levels are linked to weak economic growth against faster population increases and the rising cost of living. In 2024, around 450,000 people were affected by floods in the Far North Region, with more than 85,000 hectares of farmland destroyed, impacting food security. 

Cameroon is grappling with one of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, driven by three distinct and complex emergencies. In the Northwest and Southwest regions, ongoing armed conflict between non-state armed groups (NSAGs) and government forces continues to cause widespread insecurity and displacement. 

In the Far North, recurrent climate shocks – such as floods and droughts – compound a humanitarian situation already strained by the protracted insurgency of NSAGs linked to the Lake Chad Basin crisis. 

Meanwhile, the East, Adamawa and North regions host significant numbers of refugees fleeing instability in the Central African Republic. Together, these crises have forced over 2 million people into displacement, including internally displaced people, returnees and 410,000 refugees.

The World Food Programme (WFP) focuses on crisis response, nutrition, resilience building and mitigating the root causes of food insecurity.

WFP's work in Cameroon to assist vulnerable communities

What the World Food Programme is doing in Cameroon

Emergency response
WFP provides unconditional life-saving food assistance to populations affected by shocks such as violent conflict and the effects of climate change and pandemics, including refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees and vulnerable host communities in Adamawa, East, Far North, North, North West and South West regions. WFP’s support ensures safe access to adequate and nutritious food during and after crises, while supporting recovery from and building resilience to shocks.
Early recovery and resilience
WFP promotes the creation of productive assets and supports the development of income-generating activities using community-led gender-responsive approaches. WFP works to ensure that vulnerable families in protracted displacement and at-risk communities in chronically food-insecure areas have safe year-round access to adequate and nutritious food and increase their resilience to shocks.
Addressing malnutrition
WFP provides nutrition assistance to children aged 6 months to 5 years, pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and malnourished people living with HIV. WFP’s goal is to reduce all forms of malnutrition among the target vulnerable populations in prioritized food insecure regions in line with national priorities. WFP’s nutrition improvement activities include malnutrition prevention and treatment, social and behaviour change communication to encourage the adoption of recommended nutritional practices as well as capacity strengthening. These are, implemented in coordination with government, other UN agencies and nutrition partners.
Support to smallholder farmers
WFP provides financial and technical support to food insecure smallholder farmers in the Far North, North, Adamawa and East regions of Cameroon to enhance their productivity and livelihoods. WFP’s focus is on promoting local agricultural value chains among smallholder farmers through building and managing community infrastructure and post-harvest storage facilities, improving agricultural practices, diversifying crop production, and enhancing market access for both men and women.
Capacity strengthening
WFP supports the Government in developing shock-response, gender- and nutrition-sensitive social safety nets and creating national systems for cash transfers as well as for home-grown school meals. Support to the Government includes South-South cooperation initiatives facilitated by WFP’s Centres of Excellence in Brazil and China.
UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS)
WFP operates safe, reliable, and cost-effective air services to enable the humanitarian community to reach people in need in hard-to-reach crisis-affected areas. By operating passenger and cargo aircraft, including security and medical evaluations, WFP provides alternative transport where commercial air operators are unavailable due to significant distances and insecurity limiting access to parts of the country. WFP is committed to strengthening air transport service delivery by reopening and launching additional destinations throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic period.

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Partners and donors

Achieving Zero Hunger is the work of many. Our work in Cameroon is made possible by the support and collaboration of our partners and donors, including:
Australia Belgium Cameroon Canada China

Operations in Cameroon

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Contacts

Office

P.O. Box 7308, Rue Giscard, Estaing, Face Cercle Municipal
Yaoundé
Cameroon

Phone
+237-222 23 17 28; +237-222 22 85 82 - Cell: +237–696 84 17 60; -696 98 51 05; -696 98 49 18
Email
WFP.Yaounde@wfp.org
For media inquiries
cameroon.communications@wfp.org
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