22 people, including two children, were killed in southern Somalia when mortar bombs exploded, a local official said Friday.
Abdi Ahmed Ali told a news conference that an explosion “caused by an unexploded mortar shell” took place near the town of Qoryoley, about 120 km south of the capital, Mogadishu.
He asked the authorities to help remove unexploded ordnance, which he said were scattered in the area to prevent further disasters.
Ibrahim Hassan, a resident of Qoryoley, told AFP that most of the victims were “young children” who “died immediately after one of them hit an explosive device near the stadium.”
The area is targeted by Al-Shabaab, which has been waging an insurgency against the internationally-backed Somali federal government since 2007.
Last month, the al-Qaeda-linked group killed 54 Ugandan peacekeepers in an attack on an African Union base in Bulo Marer, a town about 30 kilometers from Qoryoley.
The movement was expelled from the main towns in Somalia, but it retains power in large swathes of the countryside and launches attacks against security and civilian targets.
