Afghanistan needs greater help to root out landmines

Decades of wars and insecurities killed thousands and forced hundreds of thousands others to flee their homes, while Afghan families have already endured forty years of conflict, but the recent heavy fighting left behind a new wave of deadly Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), landmines and explosives.

Dozens of people mostly children have reportedly lost their lives, alone in Arghandab district of the country’s southern Kandahar province, where most of the casualties occurred due to landmine and remnants of the previous long war in the country. Most cases of the casualties are underreported.

The wide cases of landmine plantation and hiding IDPs has caused Afghanistan to become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, as the UN estimates more than 23 million people were on the brink of starvation, as the farmers have to take the risks of farming dangerous lands, as they are hugely engaged in work on the farmlands’ cultivation to desperately support their families.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that since 1989, almost 57,000 civilians have lost their livesor injured by landmines and explosive remnants of war. However, mine action partners have cleared over 19 million items across the hugely mine planted areas.

According to OCHA, ‘over 4,150 hazards remain, posing a lethal threat to communities, in particular children.’ After the end of the 20-year-old conflict and the resumption of power by the Islamic Emirate, the related organs once again started demining efforts in the provinces with the most planted-landmines. But there are still many areas in Afghanistan that have not been cleared of landmines and unexploded ordnance and clearing all these explosives is beyond the capability of the Islamic Emirate’s related organs.

Uprooting landmines in Afghanistan, only through the IEA relevant organs’ programs, is impossible and there is a need for the world cooperation to reach the goal. At an event to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, the State Minister for Natural Disasters of the Islamic Emirate urged the international community to help Afghanistan in its efforts to clear land mines and unexploded ordnance.

The international community unprecedentedly reduced its aid for the demining sector of Afghanistan, while there is a serious need for the international organization to increase the number of their demining workers, as the country is now completely ready for launching the demining programs.

Also, in the past, many demining companies have been working to remove unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan, but due to unknown reasons, they reduced their demining efforts in the country, while security has now been fully ensured and public services, in any parts of the country, have become possible.

The Islamic Emirate, once again calls on the international organization, not to leave Afghanistan alone in its efforts to uproot this hidden enemy across the country and announce it a free landmine country in the region.