A group of children from Afghanistan were grazing sheep in the fields near Bolak Wandi village in eastern Helmand when they saw a metal object half buried in the ground. In an excited crowd, they debated who found it first and who could sell it for junk.
Mortar shells exploded, killing a child immediately.
Three more children died from their wounds as they were taken to hospital by Taliban fighters nearby. Another died on arrival.
“I don’t blame anybody,” said Haji Abdul Salam, a father of two. He tries to focus on comforting his wife, who cries for their lost children.
“This mortar could have been released from the Americans or the Soviet Union. However, not only our region, but the whole of Afghanistan must be freed from this problem.
That mission has become more difficult.
of the Taliban return to power Last summer, de-mining efforts should have helped, ending their 20-year rebellion, with areas that were out of bounds during the fighting and eventually accessible.
Yet foreign governments, now withholding development aid to the Afghan government, are unwilling to use their taxpayer money to promote the Taliban, an Islamist group that restricts women’s rights and kills Osama bin Laden. Most have been at war with the West since granting asylum. 9/11 attacks.
An unintended consequence: In a previously unreported development, the Afghan government agency that oversees mine clearances reported Reuters It lost nearly $3 million of its funding and in April laid off about 120 employees — most of the organization — because it could not pay salaries.
“All the sanctions have hit us badly,” said Syed Danish, deputy head of the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) agency. “We cannot do strategic work, which is our main responsibility.”
The cost of ordinary Afghans, who they say are being treated unfairly, to isolate the Taliban was also highlighted one after another. earthquake Thousands were left homeless and the health system under enormous pressure last month, prompting some calls for a new approach to the group.
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The loss of a de-mining fund could have profound consequences for a country of 40 million people, one of the most heavily mined places on Earth after four decades of war.
The United Nations Mining Agency estimates that about 80 percent of civilian casualties from “explosive remnants of war” are children, partly due to their curiosity as well as their regular role in collecting scrap metal to increase families’ incomes.
According to the United Nations Children’s Agency, in the seven months to March, about 300 Afghan children were killed or maimed by landmines and other non-explosive devices.
Bolak Vandi’s five children, four boys and a girl aged between five and 12 years, died in April.
thousands of devices
Foreign governments have exempted humanitarian aid from their freezes, and hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into the country, allowing aid organizations to function.
But with the limits of such funds aimed at meeting immediate needs and bypassing the government, many economists and experts say the population will suffer without strong state services and a viable banking sector.
DMAC’s funding is part of the roughly $9 billion a year in international development and security aid that the World Bank says has been frozen since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, which relies on foreign donors for the bulk of its budget. is dependent.
De-mining is largely carried out by aid groups, but according to Danish and aid workers, DMAC provides strategic guidance to prioritize high-threat areas and nationwide de-mining to avoid repetitive efforts. Maps the mining task.
“My work works best when there is coordination and oversight at the national level,” said Seren Serenson, head of humanitarian disarmament and peacebuilding for Afghanistan at the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), an international organization.
“What is being done at the moment is that we select areas from the old list,” he said. “It is not effective and is not addressing the most serious threats.”
Serensen looks out of a car window on the way back to the capital Kabul, a small village in the eastern district of Khaki Jabbar, on the way to the capital Kabul, an area once used as a military outpost by the Soviet military and which had recently witnessed heavy fighting. As soon as the Taliban captured the area.
Hundreds of instruments have been detonated in the surrounding area but about 40,000 square miles still need to be cleared. The United Nations De-mining Agency says that across Afghanistan, there are thousands of non-detonated equipment waiting.
“We finally have this wonderful window of opportunity to really evacuate this country,” Srensen said. “We can do a lot.”
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On a hill outside Kafus Qalai, about 20 miles east of Kabul, DRC mine-clearance workers in protective vests and ground sweepers and sweep detectors.
They place a small flag on a barely visible device nestled in the dirt – an anti-Soviet personnel mine – and then attach it to wires that run hundreds of meters to a small makeshift control center where the countdown begins. The equipment explodes and the miners return to their painstaking work.
A few miles away, on the doorstep of a mosque, children watch cartoons that show different types of explosive devices and the types of places they can hide.
His tutor tells him what to do if he finds one.
“We don’t go to that place and we report it to our parents,” the children repeat back enthusiastically.
The surrounding community is already taking out patches of non-mined land for wheat and fruit cultivation and working on irrigation projects, developments that could help ease the growing hunger crisis in Afghanistan.
‘People are suffering’
When asked about the cash crunch and layoffs at DMAC, the US State Department said it continues to support humanitarian de-mining in Afghanistan by funding NGO partners directly. A spokesman said it has provided $720 million in overall humanitarian aid to Afghans since last August.
Germany’s foreign minister said in June that there was no place to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government unless it changed policies on issues such as women’s rights.
Foreign capitals seek to squeeze Taliban finances to pressure group to lift Sanctions On the rights of girls and women to education, freedom of expression and employment.
Since returning to power, the group has kept girls’ secondary schools closed and demanded that women cover their faces in public and leave home with only male relatives or husbands.
Some have also accused the Taliban of retaliatory attacks against former members of the Western-backed administration, including soldiers and intelligence officials.
The Taliban has said it will respect human rights and has promised to investigate the killings as revenge, adding that they have apologized against former enemies.
The Taliban also says it is addressing issues including girls’ secondary education and has called on Washington to free billions of dollars in central bank assets. Saying They belong to the Afghan people and the country needs a functioning banking system to remove poverty.
Late last month, a tentative agreement was reached when the DMAC agreed that the United Nations could establish an office in the country for about six months. But according to Paul Heslop, the head of the UN Mine Action Program in Afghanistan, it has hired only 30 of the original 120 employees, with funding for half of the Afghan agency’s UN regulator before the Taliban takeover.
He said that for long-term stability, the responsibility of coordinating de-mining should rest with a state and not an external humanitarian body like a UN agency.
“We are in a situation where we have a government that is not recognized,” Heslop said, adding that the lack of funds was “very difficult”.
“Even if you pay people they can’t take money out of banks, it’s very difficult for the people of Afghanistan at the moment, they are really suffering.”