Unexploded ordnance left behind by Nato troops as they leave Afghanistan is killing and injuring a rising number of civilians, a UN demining group said Sunday. Mohammad Sediq Rashid, director of the Mine Action Coordination Centre, told AFP that the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) must fully clean up military bases and firing ranges being vacated ahead of a final withdrawal due next year.A total of 53 Afghan civilians, mostly children, have been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance found in or around ISAF bases and firing ranges since 2008, he said.
The 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, signed by most ISAF contributing nations, requires militaries to remove all unexploded ordnance from areas they vacate.
All ordnance, including those left by Soviet troops and Mujahideen, caused 363 civilian casualties in 2012 compared to more than 240 between January and June 2013: a rise from an average of 30 a month to 40 a month so far this year, Rashid said.
"We believe if this problem is not sorted out, the casualty rate is very highly likely to increase because there are many people looking for unexploded ordnance to be sold as scrap metal," he told AFP.
"I think the main reason (for this increase) is these firing ranges," he said. "The evidence suggests there is a problem, this job is not being done properly," he added. He said weaponry left behind included unexploded mortars and grenades.