There are fears that the drought in the Horn of Africa will get worse, with weather forecasts indicating that rains will fail once again in the worst-affected region.

A forecast by the Nairobi-based Drought Monitoring Centre for Eastern and Southern Africa says south-eastern Ethiopia, northern Kenya and almost all of Somalia will experience below-normal rainfall between May and July this year.

By contrast, Eritrea and northern Ethiopia - which are affected to a lesser degree by recent droughts - are predicted to have a better-than-normal rainfall later this year.

The weather pattern is attributed to the effect known as "La Niña" - the lowering of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific ocean, which sets off a chain of sea-temperature and climatic reactions across the globe.

"La Niña episodes have strong influence over many parts of eastern Africa that receive significant rainfall during the March to September period," the Drought Monitoring Centre says.