A decades-old land mine in Afghanistan claimed the lives of nine children Sunday, The Associated Press reported Monday night, citing a Taliban spokesman.
Nine children — five boys and four girls aged 5 to 10 — lost their lives in eastern Afghanistan when an old land mine detonated as they were playing, according to AP. Hamidullah Nisar, a Taliban official in Ghazni, said the old bomb from past wars exploded near the village where the children lived without warning and killed them all.
Afghanistan has a long history of wars, leaving many dangerous, unexploded bombs across the country, AP noted. The bombs are extremely hazardous, especially to kids who collect spare metal to sell for their families.
An old land mine found by children in eastern Afghanistan exploded while they were playing with it, killing nine children, a Taliban spokesman said Monday. https://t.co/cckmhTyEev
— NBC News World (@NBCNewsWorld) April 2, 2024
The deadly device dates back to the era of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan during the 1980s, according to Nisar, VOA News reported. The United Nations (UN) in Kabul talked about the serious danger that leftover bombs from wars bring to Afghan people. The UN praised the work done to remove many dangerous explosives from the land. They also stressed the need to keep working hard to make Afghanistan safer for everyone, especially because the country has faced so much war. (RELATED: Crows Suspected Of Picking Up Landmines On Ukrainian Battlefields)
In 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stressed the importance of dealing with unexploded bombs more effectively, reporting that 640 children were killed or hurt by these bombs in just 18 months, according to VOA News.