Landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) have killed at least six children in the past week in the northern provinces of Jawuzjan and Faryab.
Abdul Sattar Halimi, a spokesperson for the Taliban police command in Jawuzjan, says that the explosion of ammunition left from years of conflict killed two 9-year-old children and injured another child in Darzab district on Monday, October 2.
In a separate case, an 11-year-old child was killed in the Qarqin district of Jowzjan province on September 27 after a mortar shell exploded.
On September 25, in Faryab province’s Gurziwan district, two teenagers lost their lives to a landmine explosion. According to local sources, the boys were shepherds and were guiding their herd to the pasture when they accidentally stepped on the mine.
Data in a recent report by the International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) show that children comprise the largest group of victims affected by mine and unexploded ordnance explosions in Afghanistan.
According to the report, over 640 children were killed and injured in 541 incidents related to mine explosions and unexploded ordnance between January 2022 and June 2023. These incidents accounted for nearly 60 percent of the total 1,092 victims during that period.
UN statistics reveal that Afghanistan, after Syria, has the second-highest number of civilian victims from landmines and unexploded ordnance explosions.
Over the period from 1989 to 2021, more than 57,000 individuals have been killed or injured as a result of these explosions, says the UN.
Decades of bloody conflict and violence have left an estimated 1,302 square kilometers in Afghanistan covered by landmines and unexploded ordnance.
Since 1989, demining organizations in Afghanistan have cleared approximately 3,011 square kilometers, encompassing 27,833 hazardous areas.
However, following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, many mine clearance organizations halted their operations in Afghanistan, with only a few resuming their activities recently, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).
