Three children have lost their lives to mine explosions and two others were injured in Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Logar provinces on Friday, local Taliban authorities confirmed.
According to the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency, two children were killed and two others were injured after an unexploded mortar shell went off when they were collecting firewood in Pul-e-Alam, the capital city of the eastern province of Logar.
The wounded, the news agency reported, are in good health conditions and have been already taken under treatment in a civilian hospital.
Taliban authorities in the southern Kandahar province also confirmed that a 13-year-old child was killed on the same day after the unexploded mine he was playing with went off in Daman district of the province.
These two incidents highlight the dangers posed by explosive ordnance contamination in Afghanistan which has been hit by decades-long war and violence, particulary the Taliban’s insurgency over the past 20 years.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says that mines and unexploded ordnance endanger the lives of thousands in every year in Afghanistan.
According to UN, Afghanistan has one of the highest levels of explosive ordnance contamination in the world and $18.3M is needed for survey, explosive ordnance disposal and landmine clearance in 2023.
