The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said that at least 640 children were killed or injured in 541 incidents involving explosive remnants of war and landmine explosions in Afghanistan between January 2022 and June 2023.
This, according to ICRC, is nearly 60% of the total number of civilian casualties (1,092 people) because of unexploded ordnance-related incidents.
Moreover, ICRC highlighted the urgent need for additional efforts to address the issue of weapon contamination and step up public awareness programs about the risks and dangers of landmines and unexploded ordnance.
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, people’s lives continue to be disrupted because efforts to clear the landmines and other unexploded weapons have not been entirely successful, ICRC said in an article on Tuesday.
“Children have been particularly vulnerable to fatal or life-changing injuries as they unintentionally step on landmines or pick up unexploded ordnance littered around the places they stay, play or do household chores.”
The Taliban takeover and the group’s string of bans on women and girls have caused many donor states and organizations withdrew their funding. ICRC says that the funding shortfall has affected landmine clearance efforts in the country.
“The dramatic drop in resources and funding had an equally dramatic impact on efforts to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance,” ICRC asserted.
“There is, however, still a desperate need for the international community to provide technical and financial assistance to reduce the number of human casualties caused by unexploded devices.”
According to the 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.
