ABC News Presents DISASTER IN THE DESERT Reports from West Africa

A humanitarian crisis looms in West Africa, and ABC's Bazi Kanani is there reporting from the hunger zone, where nearly 15 million people and roughly one million children are at risk -- that's roughly the number of children in New York City's public schools. Kanani travels to places where some aid is arriving and to others that have received no help at all. It is a race against time in Niger, where child malnutrition is at emergency levels – a country now being called the "worst place in the world to be a mother."

The peak of this hunger crisis is expected in the coming months, when many will die if aid agencies aren't able to position enough food in place in advance. A World Food Programme spokesperson gives ABC's Bazi Kanani the big picture: "This is the first test of whether lessons have been learned from last year's famine in East Africa" – where the response was late, but at least it came.

These reports are the latest in ABC News' continuing coverage of food and drought crises in Africa – "A Cry for Help: Disaster in the Desert." The first report aired, Tuesday, May 29 on "World News with Diane Sawyer," and will continue to run across all ABC broadcasts and platforms.

Lama Hasan was the first network correspondent to report on last year's famine from Kenya in July. "World News" weekend anchor David Muir was the first network anchor to report from inside Somalia – the epicenter of that crisis.

READ: 'A Cry for Help': Facing Hunger Crisis in West Africa, Families Pick Leaves, Berries to Survive

Photo credit: Clark Bentson/ABC

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