West Africa spans 16 countries and more than 470 million people. Within it lies the Sahel, home to an estimated 135 million people and some of the world’s least reached communities. Yet relative to its size and spiritual need, it remains one of the least resourced mission fields in the world.

Stretching from Senegal to Sudan, the Sahel is a culturally rich and complex region. Poverty and political instability have shaped the region for decades, while extremist violence in recent years has added further pressure to communities already facing significant hardship. Since 2020, West Africa has accounted for six of Africa’s nine successful coups, and millions of people have been displaced by conflict and instability.

But these challenges are not the whole story. Across the Sahel, local leaders and ministries are faithfully responding to the realities around them, seeing people come to faith, leaders grow in their capacity and churches and mission networks work together in new ways. In many places, this means finding practical and creative ways to serve communities while sharing the hope of the Gospel.

It is this work that the West Africa Fund (WAF) was established to support.

Launched in 2024 through a collaboration between Mergon and fellow global peer funders, WAF brings together resources, relationships and local insight to strengthen locally led ministries across the West African Sahel. The aim is to help more people encounter the Gospel and see its life-changing impact take root in communities across a region that remains both deeply under-resourced and among the least reached in the world.

The Fulani people

The Fund’s initial focus is the Fulani people.

More than 42 million strong, the Fulani are one of Africa’s largest and most widely dispersed people groups, and the largest nomadic ethnic group in the world. Their pastoral way of life, movement across borders, trade relationships and extensive family networks have connected communities across the Sahel for generations.

Fulani scholarship and political influence have shaped parts of West Africa for centuries, and the same networks that carried people and goods across the region also carried ideas, culture and tradition between communities that might otherwise never have connected.

For some Fulani communities, particularly those living in remote or nomadic settings, access to scripture, regular fellowship and theological training can be limited. WAF’s work in this context includes supporting local believers and leaders as they grow in their understanding of scripture, develop expressions of church and discipleship that are rooted in their own context, and serve their communities in practical ways.

Led from within

From the outset, WAF has sought to listen to people who understand the Fulani and Sahel context from within. Its initial portfolio has been shaped alongside mature Fulani believers and Sahel church leaders, whose experience and insight have helped identify where support could strengthen work already underway.

The Fund is partnering with ministries involved in disciple-making movements, youth evangelism and discipleship, Bible translation, theological training, media, leadership development, and prayer and compassion ministries.

The Fund’s preference is to partner with indigenously-led ministries. This means that leadership, discernment and responsibility remain with people who know the communities, cultures and relationships in which the work is taking place.

This approach reflects a conviction that those closest to a community are best placed to understand its context and discern what faithful Christian ministry should look like there. Local leaders bring their own knowledge, relationships and experience to the work, shaping ministry in ways that are grounded in their communities and responsive to the realities they face.

Says De Wet, Mergon’s regional manager, Africa: ‘We’re still in the early stages of the Fund, so we’re being intentional about learning, listening and adapting as we see what’s working and where changes are needed to serve the ministries more effectively. Relationships are, and will always be, central to the way we work.’

For those who would like to explore the wider context of the region, and understand how the Fulani fit within the broader landscape of unreached people groups across the continent, we recommend reading Chapter 3 of the Awakening Africa report, ‘Reaching the Unreached’.