At least 12 people across Ethiopia have died in storms that have also destroyed harvests in some areas, the local media reported on Friday.
Seven female farm labourers were killed by lightning on Wednesday in Tigrai state in northern Ethiopia, where flooding caused by heavy rains also destroyed 175ha of barley and wheat crops, the state Addis Zemen daily said.
Elsewhere, three people were swept away by floods on Thursday while trying to cross the swollen Ghibe River near the town of Jimma in western Ethiopia, the government daily also reported.
Also on Thursday, two sisters, aged nine and 11 years, drowned in flooding in the mountainous North Wollo area of central Ethiopia where they were herding cattle, the report said.
A search was under way on Friday for their missing 17-year old brother. — Sapa-DPA