An ambulance in Mogadishu. (Archive) © Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP/dpa
The children are said to have found an intact explosive device and played with it. Meanwhile, terrorists stormed a hotel in Mogadishu, killing at least seven guests.
Mogadishu - According to the authorities, at least 22 children between the ages of 10 and 15 were killed by an explosive device while playing football in the crisis state of Somalia.
Three other children were injured on Friday in Qoryoley district in the southern province of Lower Shabelle, said the governor of the province, Ibrahim Aden. The children had found an intact explosive device on a football field and played with it. This had exploded.
According to the governor, it is suspected that recent rains had exposed the explosive device, which was probably left behind by terrorists of the Islamist terrorist militia Al-Shabaab. The group controls large parts of southern Somalia and repeatedly carries out attacks on civilians, soldiers and politicians.
At least seven dead in attack on hotel
Also on Friday, there was a deadly terrorist attack in Mogadishu. Fighters of the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab stormed a luxury hotel and killed at least seven people. Among the victims were five guests of the Pearl Beach Hotel, located on Lido Beach, and two guards, police told the German Press Agency. Two suicide bombers were also killed. The siege of the hotel continued on Friday evening.
First, the two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to the hotel, then gunmen stormed the building, said police officer Mohamed Dahir. The exact number of attackers is still unknown, he said. Another security official, Hassan Ali, said the attackers had taken hotel guests hostage, complicating the work of security forces. According to eyewitnesses, shots and explosions were heard in and around the hotel on Friday evening.
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack via the pro-Islamist radio station Andalus. The group has been shaking the country in the Horn of Africa with about 16 million inhabitants for years with attacks and violence. Dpa
