Ghazni police said the children – five girls and four boys – ranged in age from four to 10 years old.

Kabul:

An explosion in southeastern Afghanistan that killed nine children was caused by landmines laid during the country’s decades of conflict, a provincial official said on Monday.

Hamidullah Nisar, head of Ghazni province’s information and culture department, said an explosion occurred in a mine shaft on Sunday when a group of young boys and girls were playing in the mine in the Gru district of Ghazni province.

“An unexploded mine left behind by the Russian invasion exploded while they were playing,” Nisar told AFP.

“Unfortunately, it killed nine children.”

Ghazni police said the children – five girls and four boys – ranged in age from four to 10 years old.

Large areas of Afghanistan are littered with unexploded mines, grenades and mortars from decades of conflict, including the 1979 Soviet invasion, the subsequent civil war and the two-decade Taliban insurgency against the foreign-backed government.

Violence has declined sharply since the Taliban seized power in August 2021 and ended the insurgency.

However, unexploded ordnance and landmines still frequently claim lives, with the ICRC saying children are the main victims.

Another child was killed and five others injured in an unexploded ordnance explosion in Herat province on Sunday, local police said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)