KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A child was killed and another injured when an unexploded device detonated in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday, Taliban authorities said, underscoring the persistent danger posed by war remnants across the country.
The blast took place in the Goshta district as the two children were grazing livestock in a mountainous area, according to Sayed Tayyab Hamad, spokesperson for the Taliban police command in the province.
Hamad said that one child died at the scene, while the second was transferred to a local hospital and is in stable condition.
Afghanistan remains one of the most heavily mine-contaminated countries in the world. Millions of people, particularly in rural areas, live near land contaminated by explosive remnants of war left behind by decades of conflict — from the Soviet invasion in the 1980s and subsequent civil wars to the 2001-2021 U.S.-led war that ended with the Taliban’s return to power.
A week earlier, two people were killed and 10 others injured, most of them women and children, in separate explosions involving unexploded ordnance in Nangarhar, Maidan Wardak, and Parwan provinces, according to local sources and Taliban authorities.
Children account for a significant proportion of casualties because they often mistake unexploded devices for toys or encounter them while playing outdoors, collecting scrap metal, or grazing animals.
According to a recent report by Save the Children, nearly one Afghan child is killed or injured by explosive ordnance every day on average. The organisation documented 338 children killed, injured, or permanently disabled between January 2025 and January 2026, representing nearly 70% of all recorded victims during that period.
Meanwhile, demining and risk-education programs have faced growing challenges in recent years as international funding has declined, forcing some UN agencies and humanitarian organizations to scale back operations or suspend mine-action projects altogether.
Aid agencies and UN officials have repeatedly called for renewed international support to accelerate mine clearance and expand community awareness programs aimed at preventing further civilian casualties.
