Nearly a quarter of the population in drought-hit Djibouti is in desperate need of aid, with malnutrition and a dramatic lack of water causing a mass exodus from rural areas, the U.N. said on Thursday.

"Persistent and recurring droughts have resulted in a general lack of water for both people and livestock," said the U.N.'s Djibouti coordinator Robert Watkins.

Somalia's Shebab rebels on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a weekend bomb attack on a Djibouti restaurant packed with Westerners, saying it targeted French "crusaders".

The al-Qaida-linked group also urged the Horn of Africa nation and key Western ally to expel foreign forces and shut down the United States' main Africa base, or else face a wave of more serious attacks.

Three people were killed, including a male and female suicide bomber, and 15 wounded in late Saturday's attack on a restaurant popular with Westerners in central Djibouti, local media said Sunday.

Quoting an interior ministry statement, Djibouti's ADI news agency said the attackers were from Somalia, where Djiboutian troops are part of an African Union force fighting Al-Qaida-linked Shebab rebels.

The United States secured long term access Monday to a military base in Djibouti that it uses to launch counter-terrorism missions, including drone strikes, in Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his Djibouti counterpart Ismail Omar Guelleh announced the renewed "long term lease" on Camp Lemonnier to reporters as they met at the White House.

East African heads of state met in Addis Ababa Thursday in the latest push for peace in war-torn South Sudan, where almost three months of raging conflict has left thousands dead.

Leaders from the East African bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), were hosted by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn to "deliberate on the current situation" in the troubled fledgling nation, a statement read.

The Pentagon is shifting its drone operations from a U.S. base in Djibouti to a more remote airfield after local officials voiced concern about possible collisions with commercial aircraft, officials said Wednesday.

"There was a concern over what would happen if a MQ-1 (Predator drone) obstructed a runway, and that it would have a significant impact on commercial air operations," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The ruling party in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti said on Saturday it had won a parliamentary election based on preliminary results, as the opposition denounced what it called widespread fraud during voting.

The ruling Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party "received 49.39 percent of the votes against 47.61 percent for the opposition" in the capital, home to three-quarters of the population, Interior Minister Hassan Darar Houffaneh told reporters.

Parliamentary polls in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti opened peacefully Friday, residents said, with opposition groups joining forces to challenge the ruling party.

This is the first poll since 2003 in which opposition groups have decided to forge a coalition together, taking part as the Union for National Safety (USN).

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation's executive committee has recommended suspending Syria's membership in the pan-Muslim grouping, it said in a statement on Monday.

The committee has "recommended to the meeting of the council of foreign ministers to be held in Djibouti the suspension of Syria's membership in the OIC in light of the bloody events taking place in the country," said the statement that followed a meeting in Saudi Arabia late Sunday.

Germany said Saturday it was investigating the possible breaking of an arms embargo after a report claiming that a German ship had been carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria.

The news weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday on its website that a German shipping company stopped one of its vessels on the high seas after a tip-off from opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.