Deadly landmines kill nearly 1,950 Afghans in 2016

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

Deadly landmines killed nearly 1,950 people, mostly civilians, in 2016, said Afghan Landmine Survivors' Organization (ALSO) on Thursday.

ALSO is a non-governmental organization operating since 2007 for the welfare and rehabilitation of people with disabilities caused by landmines.

Islamuddin Amiri, head of the organization, told journalists in Kabul, Afghanistan is the second worst country affected in this regard after Yemen. “In the year before (2015), the victims were 1,310, but last year (2016) it has increased to 1,943”, he said.

This came as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an anti-landmine group, is pushing hard for an ultimate end to the use of this hidden danger.

In an annual report on Thursday, the ICBL noted that landmines caused 8,605 casualties, including 2,089 deaths, in 2016 around the world. That includes improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance that are triggered like mines.

Of those casualties, 78 percent were civilians, and the total included the most child casualties ever recorded, the report said.

Under a 1999 international treaty, countries agree not to use or produce antipersonnel mines, to destroy their existing stockpiles, provide assistance to mine victims and clear their territory of mines within 10 years of joining the pact.

Thursday’s report said Myanmar and Syria had the only government forces that actively planted mines during the past year. Both the countries are not signatories to the treaty.

Worldwide, the report says a total of 170 square kilometers (42008 acres) were cleared during 2016, and the vast majority of that work took place in Afghanistan, Croatia, Iraq and Cambodia.

According to officials, a large number of unexploded mines are of the Soviet-occupation era while the Taliban and other insurgents are adding to it with their improvised forms of mines that continue to cause havoc.

Afghanistan, as per its international commitments, has vowed to clear all country of the deadly mines by 2023.