According to the authorities, at least 22 children between the ages of 10 and 15 were killed by an explosive device while playing soccer in the crisis-hit country of Somalia.

Three other children were injured on Friday in Qoryoley district in southern Lower Shabelle province, the province's governor Ibrahim Aden said. The children found an intact explosive device on a soccer field and played with it. This had exploded.

According to the governor, it is suspected that recent rains exposed the explosive device, which is believed to have been left behind by terrorists from 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 hotel attack

Also on Friday there was a deadly terrorist attack in Mogadishu. Fighters from the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab stormed a luxury hotel and killed at least seven people. Among the victims were five guests at the Pearl Beach Hotel on Lido Beach and two guards, the 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, police officer Mohamed Dahir said. The exact number of attackers is still unknown, he said. Another security official, Hassan Ali, said the attackers had taken hotel guests hostage, making the security forces' job difficult. According to eyewitnesses, shots and explosions were heard in and around the hotel on Friday evening.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the crime via the pro-Islamist radio station Andalus. The group has been shaking the country on the Horn of Africa with around 16 million inhabitants for years with attacks and violence.