Five people died and three others were wounded when a homemade bomb exploded in eastern Algeria on Thursday, the defense ministry said.

The victims were on board a vehicle when the explosion took place in the Tebessa Province, some 573 km (358 miles) from the capital, Algiers, it said in a statement, without providing further details.

Violence is rarer now in the North African country since authorities ended a war in 1990s with armed Islamists in a conflict that killed 200,000 people.

But al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and small bands of Islamists allied to Islamic State have been active in remote areas.