Three children playing with a landmine near their home in the north-western town of Buhodle were killed when the device exploded, their father Muse Abdullahi Mire said.
The children thought the landmine was a toy. It exploded, killing the three siblings and injuring two other children and their mother in Qori-lugud village, about 30 km away from Buhodle.
The wounded were taken to Togdher’s regional capital of Buroa, about 95 km away. Several livestock were also wounded in the incident.
The area, which lies near the Somalia-Ethiopia border, is infested with landmines from the days of the Ogaden conflict in the late 1970s.
Somalia is one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world. However, the Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed announced last week that Mogadishu is free of landmines.
