NAIROBI, 30 October (IRIN) - Fifteen people were killed and 12,000 villagers feared displaced in southeastern Ethiopia after a river burst its banks during torrential rainfall that has pounded the area for the past two days, officials of the country's Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency said on Monday.

"The Wabe Shebelle burst its banks on Friday night and flooded adjoining areas after heavy rains in Ethiopia's highlands," Sisay Tadesse, the agency's spokesman, said.

He said 44 water pumps had been washed away. The worst-affected area is Gode, about 650 km southeast of the nation's capital, Addis Ababa, and the towns of Kelafo and Mustahil.

According to the report, 13 people were killed in Kelafo, 750 km southeast of Addis Ababa, and two in Mustahil, 90 km farther south. Sisay said at least 20 villages were still submerged on Monday in Kelafo and 15 around Mustahil.

He said the situation was being carefully monitored. "We still have to assess the magnitude of the damage," he said.

He said the agency had started taking measures to avoid a wider catastrophe and 19,721 metric tonnes of food aid would be sent to the affected areas from Monday.

"Most of these areas had already been hit by the floods over the summer," he said. "It is a cause for concern."

He said the rains on the highlands started four weeks ago.

At least 639 people were killed in August when unusually heavy rains triggered massive flooding in the eastern, northern and southern regions of the country. A total of 357,000 people were affected by those floods, which the United Nations humanitarian agencies said were the worst in decades.

Ethiopia, home to 77 million people, has faced heavy floods and droughts in recent years along with other countries in the Horn of Africa. Flooding usually occurs in the lowlands after heavy rains in the June-September season drench the highlands. This year's flooding was especially damaging because it followed a severe drought.

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