The United Nations has expressed concern over the continuing threat posed by mines and unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan, calling for an urgent increase in financial support for mine-clearance programs. The organization announced that out of the total $14.5 million budget needed for demining activities by June, only $3.6 million has been secured; a shortfall that seriously challenges the progress of clearing contaminated areas. Olga Charifko, a staff member of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, stated on Wednesday, June 30, that 175 casualties due to mine and unexploded ordnance explosions were recorded in the first five months of this year. According to her, Afghanistan currently ranks as the third country worldwide with the highest number of casualties resulting from mine and explosive detonations. Reports indicate that 80 percent of the victims of these incidents are children, with an average of around 50 people killed or injured across the country each month. Charifko emphasized that these deaths are preventable and continuing mine-clearance operations could save hundreds of lives, especially those of children. She added that while the risk remains, clearance programs are facing severe budget shortages\u2014a situation highlighting the urgent need for global community attention. At the same time, the absence of a cohesive and nationwide plan for managing mine risks within the country has further increased concerns. Statistics show that in 2025, at least 92 people lost their lives due to mine and explosive device detonations, with 375 others injured, 66 percent of whom were children. Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross also reported that one-third of explosive-related incidents last year occurred in eastern Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN warns of urgent funding shortages for mine clearance in Afghanistan, highlighting ongoing risks and high child casualties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16429","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\/16429","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=16429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}