KABUL (SW) – The National Disaster Management Authority states that up to 2.9 square kilometers of land contaminated with explosive materials were cleared, and another 2 square kilometers were surveyed for mine clearance in January this year.
Sayed Karimullah Danish, the head of analysis and evaluation at the Mine Clearance Coordination and Management Department of this authority, says that more than 143,000 people were informed about the dangers of explosive materials in the first month of this year.
He adds, “In the past month, 143,456 people have directly received messages about the dangers of explosive materials.”
Officials from the National Disaster Management Authority further add that in the past one and a half months, 39 incidents of explosions from leftover war materials occurred, resulting in seven deaths and 52 injuries.
Families of some of the victims of landmine explosions from previous wars have also called on the Islamic Emirate to clear the mine-contaminated areas.
Padshah Gul, a resident of Laghman who lost three children from one of his relatives in a mine explosion, says that these children died because they were unaware of the mine-contaminated areas. He said: “Here, three children lost their lives due to leftover mines from the war, and their families are in need. We urge aid organizations to clear the mines.”
Similarly, Sohaila, a resident of Herat, who witnessed the death of three children in her area, has called for awareness programs about the dangers of explosive materials. She adds: ‘We ask the government to come and clear the mines here so that such incidents do not happen again, and to aware children about dangers of the various types of mines.’
Earlier, the National Disaster Management Authority recently signed a contract with a demining organization called ‘DRC’ to clear 224,000 square meters of mine-contaminated land.
Mohammad Abdullah Jan Sayeq, the spokesperson for the authority, says that according to the contract, awareness programs on the dangers of mines and unexploded ordnance will also be held for over 12,000 people.
‘The demining will cover 224,400 square meters of land in Kabul, Parwan, Logar, Maidan Wardak, and Ghazni, and awareness programs will be conducted for 12,960 people,” he said.
According to the National Disaster Management Authority’s information, 1,152 square kilometers of land in 269 districts are contaminated with unexploded ordnance, and 3.1 million citizens live within one kilometer of these areas.
