2 Afghan children killed, 8 injured after playing with explosive

Kabul, Jul 26 (EFE).- At least two children were killed on Tuesday and eight others injured in a village of Afghanistan’s southern Zabul province, when an object they were playing with exploded.

The incident took place in the Takhom village when a group of 10 children was playing with the remnants of an explosive in their garden.

“In this incident, eight children were injured and two were killed,” Zabul police spokesperson Zabiullah Jawhar told EFE.

He added that the injured children have been admitted to the nearest hospital.

Afghanistan has for years suffered from incidents related to wreckage related to explosives and landmines after going through decades of armed conflicts.

Abandoned houses and remote areas present a higher risk of such incidents for the common public, as they may not have been cleared of explosives.

Children are especially vulnerable to explosives left behind in conflict zones, as they are prone to handling them or playing them without knowing the associated risk.

One such incident took place in January, when an explosive was detonated by accident close to a school in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least nine children and wounding four.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in its latest report in mid-2021 – before the Taliban took over the country – that 41 people were killed and 104 injured during the first six months of last year due to unexploded explosives.

For decades, demining firms and organizations have been working in Afghanistan to try and remove explosives left behind during the war, including the Halo Trust, which – along with the Afghan demining program – claims to have cleared 80 percent of the country’s area of mines. EFE

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