The United Nations Mine Action Service has reported that, on average, one child loses their life each day in Afghanistan due to landmine and unexploded ordnance explosions. The agency emphasized that unexploded explosive remnants of war continue to pose a serious threat to civilians, particularly children, across the country.<\/p>\n
According to the organization’s data, the reduction in humanitarian aid and limited budgets have severely challenged mine clearance efforts and awareness campaigns about the dangers of explosive materials. As a result, vulnerable communities have decreased access to safety programs, and contaminated areas remain uncleared. Afghanistan has long been recognized as one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world due to decades of conflict.<\/p>\n
The United Nations highlighted that the redirecting of national funds by some countries towards defense sectors is a major factor contributing to the decline in support for humanitarian programs, including mine clearance. The agency warned that continuing this trend could increase civilian casualties and further hinder reconstruction efforts.<\/p>\n
Kazumi Ogawa, head of the UN Mine Action Service, stated at a mine action managers’ meeting in Geneva that experts are facing a “collective shock” at the scale of conflicts and their consequences. Referring to the situation in the Gaza Strip, she said that between 5 to 10 percent of the munitions fired during the fighting have not exploded and now remain in devastated areas as deadly threats.<\/p>\n
She noted that approximately 90 percent of victims from these materials are civilians, the majority of whom are children. The situation in Syria is also described as alarming, with statistics indicating that while around 300 people die annually in many mine-affected countries, the figure in Syria has reached about 200 deaths per week.<\/p>\n
The United Nations stressed that, beyond human casualties, the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance poses a significant obstacle to reconstruction and economic development in war-affected countries. The organization called for an immediate increase in international assistance and continued support for mine clearance programs.<\/p>\n
In Afghanistan, despite the urgent need to clear contaminated areas, a lack of financial resources and technical capacity remains a major challenge. While the Taliban administration currently manages the country, international bodies underscore that without effective cooperation and enabling conditions for mine clearance teams, the dangers to local residents, especially children, will persist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN reports that an average of one child dies daily from landmines in Afghanistan amid funding challenges for mine clearance programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-secondary-headline","category-social-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}