Wais Ahmad Barmak, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, on Monday said that the demining program in Afghanistan is under threat following the drop in financial aid for the program by international donors.

He said that at least 5,000 employees from the demining program have lost their jobs due to the budget deficit.

According to Barmak, about one thousand square kilometers of land in Afghanistan still has landmines which poses serious threats to the safety of the civilians.

International statistics on causalities from mines for 2016 reveals that on average 142 Afghans were either killed or wounded in the country on a monthly basis.

He said that landmines claim victims in at least seventeen provinces.

“600 square kilometers were remained from the first plan which needs to be cleared, another 400 square kilometers added to this figure, it means that today we in Afghanistan need to clear more than one thousand square kilometers for mines,” said Barmak.

“The lack of budget is delaying our ten years operational plan on the basis of which, all areas of Afghanistan are supposed to be cleared of mines and other unexploded ordinance until 2023,” said the chairman of the mine action department Mohammad Shafiq Yusufi.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has also rallied for support from the international community to finance the Afghan demining programs. 

The UN mission in Afghanistan has also voiced concern over the issues and suggested continued international support to tackle the problem.

Toby Lanzer, UN envoy’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan has said that the international community should continue its long-term cooperation with Afghanistan to accomplish the mission.

“We will do what we can that’s all we can do, we will do what we can to work with you, I have heard the calls to the donor community to continue to be generous, but we also have to remember that the donors are being asked to be generous in lots of different areas and the envelop is only so big. So together in one way or another we will have to find a way forward,” he said.   

Based on statistics, over the past twenty years, more than nineteen million mines and unexploded ordinance were discovered and defused across Afghanistan.