Three children were killed and one other injured on Tuesday when an explosive device left over from past conflicts detonated in the Bala Khogyani district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, according to a statement from the provincial government office. The children had reportedly mistaken the device for a toy and begun playing with it before it exploded, killing them on the spot.

What Happened

The children discovered the war remnant and were handling it when the device went off, according to the provincial statement. One other child sustained injuries in the blast. Officials have not disclosed the ages of the victims, but authorities in Nangarhar urged residents to exercise extreme caution upon encountering any suspicious objects and to immediately alert security forces rather than approaching them.

Afghanistan's Ongoing Landmine Crisis

Afghanistan is reportedly among the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, a legacy of more than four decades of continuous wars and civil conflict. The scale of the problem was underscored by data released by the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) on 4 February, which stated that at least 87 people were killed and 333 others injured across 193 incidents involving unexploded ordnance over the previous year. ANDMA Information Department Head Hafiz Mohammad Yousof Hamad noted that 67.5 per cent of all victims were children — a figure that underscores how disproportionately the youngest and most vulnerable bear the burden of this decades-old hazard.

Demining Efforts and Their Limits

According to Hamad, the Mine Clearance Coordination Department and associated demining organisations cleared 58 kilometres of land in 2025 and found and neutralised 24,720 mines. Presently, 155 demining teams are operational across Afghanistan, and during the past year they provided awareness training to more than 2.1 million people. Despite this progress, the pace of clearance continues to lag far behind the volume of unexploded ordnance still buried across the country.

A Pattern of Recurring Tragedies

The Nangarhar incident is far from isolated. On 17 February, two people were killed after an unexploded shell detonated inside a residential home in the Pusht-e-Koh district of Farah province in western Afghanistan. On 7 February, a child was killed and another injured when unexploded ordnance detonated in the Sang-e-Atash area of Badghis province while children were at play. These incidents collectively reflect a grim and recurring pattern that demining officials and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly flagged as a national emergency.

With more than two million Afghans having received ordnance-awareness training in the past year alone, officials are pressing for sustained international support to accelerate clearance operations — warning that without a significant scale-up, children will continue to pay the highest price.