KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban-controlled Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority says that at least 87 people have been killed and 33 others injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance across the country over the past year.
The authority’s spokesperson, Mohammad Yousuf Hamad, said in a video message released on Wednesday, February 4, that children make up 67.5 percent of the total victims.
According to Hamad, the casualties occurred in 193 separate incidents nationwide. He added that over the past year, 58 kilometers of land have been cleared of landmines and explosive remnants of war, with 24,720 mines and unexploded devices discovered and neutralized.
The spokesperson also said that 155 demining teams are currently operating across Afghanistan and that more than 2.1 million people have received mine risk education and awareness training.
Decades of conflict have left large areas of Afghanistan contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance.
According to United Nations figures, around 3.3 million people in Afghanistan are living within one kilometer of areas contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war.
A similar incident was reported two weeks earlier in Maidan Wardak province, where a landmine explosion killed a child and injured several others while children were collecting firewood in Maidan Shahr, highlighting the ongoing threat posed by unexploded ordnance to civilians, particularly children.
