On Friday, a local district official reported that mortar bombs exploded in southern Somalia, killing 22 people, including two children.

According to Abdi Ahmed Ali, a detonation "caused by unexploded mortar shells" occurred in the village of Qoryoley, around 120 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

He asked the authorities for assistance in clearing unexploded munitions that he claimed were dispersed around the region to avoid further calamities.

PHOTO | COURTESY blast kills 22 in Somalia

According to Ibrahim Hassan, a Qoryoley resident, most of the casualties were "young children" who "died on the spot after one of them struck an explosive device near a playground."

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The region is a target of the al-Shabaab insurgency, which has been waged against the internationally supported Somali federal government since 2007.

PHOTO | COURTESY blast kills 22 in somalia

Last month, an al-Qaeda-affiliated militia killed 54 Ugandan peacekeepers in an attack on an African Union base in Bulo Marer, about 30 kilometres from Qoryoley.

The movement has been forced out of Somalia's major towns and cities. Still, it retains authority in wide swaths of the country's rural areas, carrying out attacks on security and civilian targets.