A mortar warhead left over from years of warfare detonated on Wednesday, October 19, killing a young man in Farah province.
The 20-year-old man’s name was Habibullah and lived in Rigrish village in Farah district, a resident tells Zan Times. “He was scavenging iron scraps for more than a year because of poverty and unemployment,” explained the resident, who did not want to be named. Habibullah apparently found a mortar head and took it to an iron scrap warehouse, where it exploded.
Habibullah was fatally injured in the head, the source tells Zan Times. Another resident of Farah, who asked Zan Times to call him Shamsuddin says that Habibullah was the sole breadwinner of a family of six. “Every kilo of iron that he collected was sold for 15 to 30 afghanis,” he tells Zan Times.
It can be a dangerous job. Last year, Habibullah’s brother lost one of his hands while collecting iron shards when a mine exploded, Shamsuddin says.
In April, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that “children are at high risk of death from unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan, including when they are tasked with collecting metal scraps to supplement meagre family incomes.” It found that at least “301 children were either killed or injured by explosive remnants of war and landmines” in just the previous seven months.”
Mines and improvised explosive devices, some abandoned after decades of war, are so ubiquitous that Afghanistan is believed to be one of most heavily mined countries in the world, according to the Halo Trust, which was created to tackle the abandoned ordnance.
