Afghanistans Landmine Legacy

After decades of conflict, Afghanistan is peppered with unexploded land mines.
Every year hundreds of people are killed and maimed by the lethal litter

Moussa Khan's life was changed forever in a single moment on his way home from work near Kabul.

He says he was thinking about the son he'd lost to a landmine a week earlier when he trod on one himself.

He survived but after seven months is still struggling with the prosthetic leg he now relies on to walk.

[Moussa Khan, Landmine Victim,]:
"May God punish and destroy those who made the mine. See, this is my life today as result of it. I'm not able to work any more. I'm an innocent Muslim. What did I do to end up like this?"

Fifteen-year-old Noor Rahman, is also one of Afghanistan's 640 landmine casualties so far this year.

He's getting help at a centre run by the International Committee of the Red Cross and says he isn't letting his injuries destroy his dreams.

[Noor Rahman, Landmine Victim]:
"When I was a child I wanted to be an engineer or a teacher in the future but today, unfortunately, I'm in hospital. Despite this I'm hopeful to continue my schooling after the doctor sends me back home."

Afghanistan's long history of conflict has left it with large areas of land infested with mines and no clear mapping system.

A program of demining is underway but Shohab Hakimi who heads the Mine Detection and Dog Center says a lot hangs on finance.

[Shohab Hakimi, Head, Mine Detection and Dog Center]:
"At the moment there is 650 square kilometers of land which is still mined and those areas need to be cleared and the clearance of this area, if fund is available, will be done in the coming four to five years."

Hakimi says if there is no funding or security the demining programmis unlikely to succeed.

Afghanistan's hard-working people are the ones who pay t

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• Afghanistans
• Landmine
• Legacy
• Kabul
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• Red Cross

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sad story.. i hope those dogs don't get abused..