Decades of war have left Afghanistan littered with deadly remnants that kill or maim one person every day – 80 per cent of them children.
Afghanistan ranks third in the world for casualties caused by unexploded ordnance (UXO), with more than 50 people killed or injured each month, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has warned. The grim statistic equates to roughly one casualty per day, a deadly legacy of forty years of conflict that continues to haunt civilians long after the fighting has moved on.
Nick Pond, head of the Mine Action Service at UNAMA, painted a sobering picture of the crisis. “Ninety per cent of these casualties are caused by UXO remnants from forty years of war,” he said. Most victims are boys who stumble upon abandoned munitions while playing or herding livestock. “They find these objects of interest and play with them or throw stones at them,” Pond explained, underscoring how everyday childhood activities in rural Afghanistan have become lethal.
Children at Greatest Risk
Nearly 80 per cent of those killed or injured by explosive ordnance are children, according to UNAMA data. The youngest victims are often boys aged between four and fifteen who mistake rusty rockets, grenades, bombs or landmines for toys. In the past year alone, 87 people were killed and 333 injured in such incidents across the country.
The human cost is devastating. Children who survive frequently lose limbs, sight or the ability to walk, facing lifelong disability in a country where medical services and rehabilitation remain severely limited. Families are left traumatised and economically crippled, as injured children can no longer attend school or help with farm work. UNMAS and its partners run daily risk-education campaigns, yet the message struggles to reach every remote village where suspicion objects lie half-buried in fields and hillsides.
Vast Contaminated Areas Threaten Daily Life
More than 1,000 square kilometres of Afghan land remain contaminated by explosive remnants. Nearly three million people – along with 800 educational centres and 200 health facilities – live within one kilometre of these hazardous zones. The contamination stretches from the mountains of the Hindu Kush to the plains of the south, a silent killer left behind by successive wars.
Agricultural land, vital for a nation where most people depend on farming, is often off-limits. Farmers risk death or injury every time they plough fields or graze animals. Children are barred from playing freely or walking to school. Even roads surveyed by clearance teams can hide new threats from recent heavy fighting, including rockets and improvised munitions.
The scale of the problem is staggering. Decades of conflict have scattered bombs, rockets, grenades and landmines across the landscape. New hazards continue to emerge from clashes, while older remnants from the Soviet era, civil war and post-2001 fighting still claim victims.
Funding Cuts Hamper Clearance Efforts
Despite the urgent need, mine-action efforts are shrinking dramatically. In 2011, Afghanistan had 15,000 deminers working to clear the land. Today that number has plummeted to just 1,300 – a drop of more than 90 per cent. Humanitarian funding has dried up, the de facto authorities lack international recognition, and the number of operational clearance teams has fallen by more than 40 per cent in the past year alone.
UNMAS and its partners continue to conduct surveys, risk education sessions and clearance operations wherever possible. They also support humanitarian aid convoys by checking routes for explosive hazards. Yet the reduced capacity means many contaminated areas remain untouched. “We have significant national and international expertise in mine action in Afghanistan,” Pond noted, but without renewed funding the work cannot keep pace with the need.
Additional pressures compound the crisis: the return of thousands of refugees, earthquakes that disturb buried ordnance, and cross-border tensions that create fresh contamination. Each new incident delays progress and costs more lives.
Urgent Call for International Support
Pond and UNAMA officials stress that the situation is not hopeless. Afghanistan possesses the skilled workforce and technical knowledge required to clear every mine and piece of UXO – if the international community steps up. “Increased international support for the mine action sector could enable Afghanistan to clear all mines, allowing people to return to normal life,” Pond said.
Clearance would unlock farmland, reopen safe routes to schools and clinics, and give children back their childhood. It would also remove a major barrier to economic recovery and humanitarian assistance in one of the world’s most aid-dependent nations.
Until then, UNMAS urges every Afghan citizen to treat any suspicious object as potentially lethal. “Do not touch it. Do not move it. Report it immediately to the authorities or demining teams,” the organisation repeats in radio broadcasts, school programmes and village meetings.
