Security

Rural Afghans bear brutal cost of militants' war

AFP

Grandchildren of Niaz Bibi hold photos of their deceased fathers in Kot District, Nangarhar Province, last year June 19. [Khalid Zerai]

Grandchildren of Niaz Bibi hold photos of their deceased fathers in Kot District, Nangarhar Province, last year June 19. [Khalid Zerai]

JALALABAD -- As 10 children from the same family were walking to school last year, they came across an unexploded mortar bomb -- a common sight in Afghanistan.

Not realising what it was or the dangers it posed, the curious kids picked up the device and took it to show to an aunt.

And then it exploded.

Three children and the older relative were killed, and the remaining seven lost at least one limb each.

In this photo taken on May 3, Hamisha Gul’s sons and grandchildren, who lost their legs following a rocket explosion, rest in their bedroom in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province. [Noorullah Shirzada/AFP]

In this photo taken on May 3, Hamisha Gul’s sons and grandchildren, who lost their legs following a rocket explosion, rest in their bedroom in Khogyani District, Nangarhar Province. [Noorullah Shirzada/AFP]

The explosion in Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, was yet another horrific moment illustrating the burden borne by civilians across Afghanistan, which has been at war in one form or another for four decades.

"I feel very sad when I see other girls walk towards school and I cannot walk like them," 10-year-old Rabia Gul, who lost her right leg in the blast, told AFP during a recent visit to her family's home.

"I was happy when I had legs, but after losing one of my legs I am not happy in my life anymore," she said.

According to the United Nations (UN), 3,804 civilians -- including more than 900 children -- were killed in Afghanistan in 2018, with another 7,189 wounded.

It was the deadliest year on record for civilians in Afghanistan, where decades of conflict have left the battered nation strewn with land mines, unexploded mortars, rockets and homemade bombs.

Rabia was sitting on a bench outside her simple house as six other amputee siblings and relatives, ranging in age from six to 15, placed stockings over their stumps and wriggled into their prosthetics.

"We hope that the Taliban comes and makes peace with the Afghan government, and security will be better in Afghanistan so that no one gets killed or wounded in this country," said Shafiqullah, 15, who lost both his legs.

For the most part, the children are now tutored at home, where walls have been pockmarked by stray bullets from fighting.

But sometimes they must walk to school for exams -- a painful journey owing to blisters that develop where artificial limbs rub against skin.

Circle of violence

Such stories are common in Afghanistan, which accounted for almost half of all civilian casualties in a list of six countries at war, the UN said this year.

In Kot District in Nangarhar Province, 70-year-old grandmother Niaz Bibi lost three sons and three grandsons in two separate attacks by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).

Now Bibi is left taking care of their surviving offspring -- about 40 orphans in total.

"I always ask neighbours and other people to donate some food and clothes to feed them," Bibi told AFP, deep lines etched into her face attesting to her unbearable loss.

"I have got this weapon to guard my grandchildren against any possible attacks," she added, as she clasped an AK-47.

Such is the circle of violence, loss and revenge, and it is hard to see how Bibi's family can ever break free.

"Though I have lost [so much], if the war goes on like this, I will send all these orphaned children when they grow up to serve their country and sacrifice their lives for their homeland," Bibi said.

Do you like this article?

0 Comment

Comment Policy * Denotes required field 1500 / 1500