Kabul, Dec 1 (IANS) Three teenagers lost their lives after an unexploded ordnance left over from past wars went off in southern Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province, provincial police spokesman Belal Uruzgani confirmed on Monday.
The victims, aged between 13 and 18, were playing with the device in the Shirkhani region of Char Chino district when it exploded, according to the spokesman, Xinhua News Agency reported.
This marks the third such incident of its kind in Afghanistan in the past 10 days. In separate blasts involving unexploded ordnance from previous conflicts, four people, including children, were killed and nine others injured in the provinces of southern Kandahar and northern Balkh province.
Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most heavily contaminated countries by landmines and explosive remnants of war, with millions of unexploded devices scattered across the country as a legacy of more than four decades of conflict and civil strife.
On November 26, provincial police office in a statement said that three children lost their lives and two others were injured in the blast of an unexploded ordnance left over from past wars in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province.
The incident took place in Nahri Shahi district of the province, after the children found the device and began playing with it, but the device exploded, killing the three kids on the spot, and injuring two others, according to the statement.
On November 14, provincial police spokesman Sediqullah Sediqi said that three children lost their lives as an unexploded device left over from the past wars exploded in the western Afghanistan Badghis province.
The ill-fated children found a toy-like device and began playing with it, but the device suddenly exploded, killing three on the spot, the official added.
A total of 137 people lost their lives and more than 330 others sustained injuries following the blasts of unexploded ordnances, remnants of past wars, across Afghanistan in 2024, local media had reported.
Among the deceased, 125 children, 10 men, and two women were accounted for, while the injured comprised 264 children, 53 men, and 16 women.
–IANS
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