Nineteen of 25 people killed by flash floods in Ethiopia's eastern town of Jijiga this week were children, a regional official said on Saturday. The region is prone to droughts and flooding. Last year, scores of people died after weeks of heavy rain.
"The force of the flash flood that hit Jijiga town on Thursday night swept away 200 houses, killing 25 people of whom 19 were children," Nur Abdi Mohammed, spokesman for the Somali region, told Reuters. Forty-five people were receiving hospital treatment, he said.