Over 100 Afghans suffer casualties from landmines monthly

KABUL (Pajhwok): Almost 57,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or injured by landmines since 1987, according to a statement on Wednesday.

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action said that mine action partners have removed over 19 million unexploded devices from Afghanistan.

On it twitter handle the UN Secretary General António Guterres said:  “Even after the fighting stops, conflicts often leave behind a terrifying legacy: landmines & explosive ordnance. We must take action to end the threat of these devices of death & help people return & re-build their lives in safety & security.”

According to the UN Mines Action Service (UNMAS) since 1989, about 56,923 Afghan civilians have been recorded to have been killed or injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) averaging to around 110 people per month.

Improvised mines (IM) and ERW from armed clashes caused nearly 99 percent of the casualties recorded in 2021. In the same year, more than 79 percent of the ERW casualties were children.

Humanitarian mine action partners in Afghanistan have cleared more than 19 million items of ERW, some 759,000 anti-personnel (AP) mines, and some 33,000 anti-vehicle (AV) mines since 1989. A total of 27,833 hazardous areas – have been cleared or otherwise canceled since 1989. This represents over 3,011 square kilometers of land released for productive use to 3,444 communities.

Some 4,158 identified hazards remain, representing nearly 1,200 km² of land, threatening about 1,537 communities, impeding safe movement of civilians and humanitarians, reducing safe access to socio-economic opportunities and impeding development. Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) has reached over 22.4 million beneficiaries since the start of the program.

The findings of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows majority of the victims of such incidents of landmines explosions are children. The children of Afghanistan have no awareness about their secret enemy, that is why they pay higher price for that.

Paul Heslop, the head of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) said, Afghanistan was still remained one of those countries that witness more incidents of ERWs explosions which caused more casualties.

Hislop told BBC, “Yes, unfortunately the level of the casualties because of the landmines is high. It is hard to get the real figures, because the system that we had in the past is not working”.

But the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNICEF believed last year, that over one thousand children were killed or wounded during that year, our estimates show that this could be a half of the casualties occurred by the explosions of landmines or other ERWs, Hislop added.

UNMAS wants to launch programs about awareness of the dangers of landmines in countries that witnessed conflicts during the past two decades. Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Congo, Iraq, Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Palestine, Syria and Yemen countries are on the top of the list.

AW/nh

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