The US Agency for International Development's Famine and Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) warned that rainfall in this period would be 60-85 percent of the long-term average and that there was a 30 percent chance of the lower figure materialising.
"An expansion in the size of the food insecure population and an increase in the severity of food insecurity is likely," FEWS NET said in an 3 April report.
The report warned of "significant impacts on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources" in a region that in 2011 suffered one of its worst drought-related food crises in decades.
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