At least 10 people were killed and two others wounded on Friday when the bus they were traveling in struck a landmine in Somalia, security officials and residents said.

According to reports, the victims were heading to the southern port city of Kismayo when an explosion ripped through their vehicle as it hit what was believed to be a landmine.

This was disclosed by a local security official Mohamed Nur Dahir.

“This was a horrible incident, ten people all of them innocent civilians were killed and two others wounded in the explosion which destroyed the minibus they were traveling in,” he said.

“Terrorist plant mines along the road used by civilian transport, and this is not the first time they have done so,” he added.

He however stated that many of the victims were taken to Kismayo for treatment.

Resident Osman Gelle, who arrived at the scene after the blast, said: “Some of the victims were camel milk sellers from villages” near Kismayo.

Kismayo was a former stronghold of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group Al-Shabaab, which frequently attacks civilian and government targets in the country.

In December 2020, five people died when the bus they had boarded hit a landmine in southern Somalia.

In September 2020, a suicide bomber killed five Somali soldiers and seriously wounded an American military adviser in a village outside Kismayo.

Al-Shabaab was driven out of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in 2011 but continues to wage a deadly insurgency against the federal government.