Blast from old land mine kills 6 Somali children from same family; baby and parents survive

Land mine kills 6 Somali children in same family

MOGADISHU, Somalia — A community leader in Somalia says an explosion of an old land mine has killed six children from the same family near the border with Ethiopia.

Hareri Hassan Barre says six children between the ages of 3 and 11 were killed by the blast as their mother prepared a meal nearby. He says only the mother, father and a small baby survived in the family of nine.

Barre says the area is full of land mines because of conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in the late 1970s.

The U.N. Mine Action Center says that 357 communities in Somalia are affected by land mines, which were first laid in the country in 1964. Mines appear along the Ethiopian border and around strategic facilities, camps and towns.