2 dead, 23 wounded in blast outside Philippines shopping mall

Cotabato City Police spokesman Christopher Lee told CNN there was a suspected "IED explosion" outside the South Seas Mall in Cotabato City on the island of Mindanao.

A spokeswoman for the Office of Civil Defense in General Santos City, Minda Morante, said two people were killed in the blast, with 23 injured, all of whom have been sent to local hospitals.

Jewel Blake H. Lumasag, a local pastor who lives in Cotabato City, said he was on his way to the mall when the explosion hit. He told CNN police made him leave the area over fears there was another bomb.

According to the official Philippine News Agency, police are still trying to determine "if the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device or illegal powerful firecrackers that accidentally went off in the area."

"We saw several people wounded and being rushed to the hospital," Police Supt. Romeo Galgo Jr. told PNA. "We are still conducting a post-blast investigation."

In a Facebook post Monday, Cotabato Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi called the blast an "act against humanity."

"I strongly condemn the bombing incident that happened in front of South Seas Mall today, a day before the New Year, the took away several innocent lives and injured dozen others," she wrote.

"This is not just another terroristic act but an act against humanity. I cannot fathom how such evil exists in this time of merry making."

History of terror

Mindanao, a province in the far south of the Philippines at the borders of Malaysia and Indonesia, has long been plagued by terrorism and unrest.

In July, at least 10 people were killed when militants linked to the Abu Sayyaf terror group struck a military checkpoint with a car bomb.

The province is home to several Islamist insurgent groups, including Abu Sayyaf, which has been blamed for a number of attacks on civilians and Philippine government troops, as well as the kidnapping of several foreign nationals.

Abu Sayyaf -- alongside the Maute group, another Mindanao-based terror organization -- was responsible for the invasion and occupation of Marawi, the country's biggest Muslim-majority city, in 2016.

Earlier this year, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte approved the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), creating an autonomous region in majority-Muslim areas of Mindanao.

The law, which gives greater independence and autonomy to Muslims in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, is the culmination of decades-long peace negotiations between Mindanao-based rebel groups, including the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the national government, according to CNN Philippines.

Duterte has said that he would not negotiate with Abu Sayyaf or other Islamist militant groups.

CNN's Euan McKirdy contributed reporting.

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