Tuesday December 7, 2021
At least two minors were killed and three wounded after they encountered unexploded ordinance in southern Somalia on Monday, authorities said.
The minors were ages 7 to 14, and the two boys claimed by the explosion were brothers, according to local authorities in the southern province of Gedo.
The incident on the outskirts of the small town of El-adde took place when the minors came across unexploded ordnance, a police officer in Garbaharey, the provincial capital of the Gedo region, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.
“Locals reached the area and transported the wounded children to the Garbaharey hospital for treatment," he added.
El-adde is a small town located 550 kilometers (340 miles) from the capital Mogadishu.
Jaylani Hussein Yusuf, a local journalist, told Anadolu Agency: "I saw the children at the hospital and their wounds are very serious."
The al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group al-Shabaab, which controls the area where the incident took place, claimed the ordnance had been dropped by warplanes from neighboring Kenya. Anadolu Agency has not verified this claim.
El-adde is known for an incident in January 2016 when al-Shabaab said it killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers serving under African Union peacekeeping mission forces in Somalia.