At least 15 children killed in landmine blasts within two weeks in Afghanistan

Significant swathes of land in Afghanistan are contaminated with unexploded ordnance from decades of bloody conflict. Hundreds of square kilometres in Afghanistan remain uncleared and claim victims, particularly children, daily.

In the latest incident, local sources in the Herat and Ghazni provinces have confirmed that at least 15 children were killed and injured as a result of explosions of leftover mines from the war in certain areas of these two provinces.

Afghanistan, as a country ravaged by war for at least four decades, still grapples with its consequences. The exposure of children to leftover war mines is one of the most alarming legacies of war. According to figures compiled by mine clearance agencies and corroborated by local sources, just in the first half of the current solar year,  at least 14 children (aged 7 to 15) have been killed in the provinces of Helmand, Ghazni, and Kandahar.

These figures continue to indicate that from the date of the 3rd of the first month of the solar year (Hama)l of until the 15th of this month ( within the last 12 days), at least 7 children of the same age group are also wounded and undergoing treatment in provincial hospitals in Helmand, Ghazni, and Kandahar.

According to local sources in Helmand province, at least three children in the Parchawi area of the Garmser district of this province were killed as a result of an explosion of a mine that had remained from decades ago, and at least two other children were wounded.

Subsequently, as a result of two other incidents that occurred both during the evening and afternoon of Tuesday in the provinces of Ghazni and Herat, at least 11 children were killed, and at least 5 other children were wounded.

According to sources in Ghazni province, around the evening of Sunday, a vehicle collided with a mine on the side of the road in the Giro district of this province, resulting in the deaths of at least 9 children, including five girls and four boys aged 5 to 15.

Meanwhile, sources in the Kashk-e-Robat Sangi district, a part of Herat province, have confirmed that two children lost their lives on Sunday as a result of a mine explosion that is said to have been left over from the era of the Russians, and at least five other children were injured.

This is happening while Afghanistan is assessed among the countries with severe contamination of mines and unexploded ordnance. According to the findings of the United Nations, mines, improvised explosive devices, and remnants of explosive materials left over from the war threaten the lives of three million people in Afghanistan. Within a one-kilometre radius, contaminated lands affect the livelihoods of communities.

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