More than 500 children have been victims in 2024 of abandoned ammunition explosions in Afghanistan

The United Nations recalls that more than 45,000 people have been killed or maimed since the end of the Soviet invasion in 1989.

Jan. 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 500 Afghan children were killed or seriously injured in 2004 by ammunition abandoned in the Central Asian country, according to an estimate published on its X social network account.

Explosive remnants of war remain one of the most significant dangers to children in Afghanistan, often claiming lives or causing permanent disabilities.

According to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), explosive remnants of war kill or injure about 110 people in Afghanistan every month. In 2023, children accounted for 89 percent of these victims.

Since 1989, more than 45,000 people in Afghanistan have been killed or injured by landmines, unexploded ordnance and other remnants of war, OCHA reported.

Despite efforts to address the crisis, mine clearance and explosive remnants of war disposal operations in Afghanistan are hampered by significant funding shortfalls.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has warned that a lack of resources has endangered the safety of 3.4 million people throughout last year.

On November 12, the demining organization HALO Trust announced that more than 65 square kilometers of land in 26 Afghan provinces remain contaminated with improvised explosive devices. The organization identified Afghanistan as one of the four countries in the world most contaminated by landmines.