RASC News Agency: Local sources have reported that eleven children have lost their lives due to a mine explosion left over from past wars in Herat and Ghazni provinces. The Bakhtar News Agency, under the control of the Taliban group, reported today, Apr 1, that Hamidullah, the media officer of Ghazni province, stated that eleven children lost their lives yesterday in the Giru district while playing with a mine leftover from the Taliban’s war with the previous government.
Meanwhile, Taliban officials in Herat province also stated that two children lost their lives in the Khwaja Talkhan area of Rabat-e Sangi district due to a mine explosion, and five others were injured. Previously, a mine explosion had claimed the lives of two students in Nangarhar, and another person in Faryab province.
After nearly half a century of war in Afghanistan, millions of mines remain scattered throughout the country, which have claimed the lives of thousands of Afghanistanis and left thousands more disabled. According to United Nations data, around 3 million people still live within a kilometer radius of mines, homemade bombs, and unexploded ordnance from the war era.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated at the end of 2022 that 15 percent of Afghanistan’s population lives with disabilities.
