Afghanistan: nine family members killed in explosion

UN says children found unexploded ordnance and took it home, where it detonated

People walk past a street in Kunduz. AFP

Nine members of one family, including four girls and two boys, were reportedly killed on Wednesday morning when a mortar round exploded in an Afghan home in Kunduz, Unicef and local officials said.

Three young girls were injured in the blast, two of them critically, Afghanistan's Tolo news reported, citing the head of the Kunduz regional hospital.

“Reportedly, one of the children unknowingly brought the unexploded device into the home after finding it in the field next to their house,” said Unicef’s acting representative in Afghanistan, Alice Akunga.

“Children are especially vulnerable to explosive remnants of war ... children continue to pay the price of a conflict not of their making,” she said.

Unicef estimates that more 460 children were killed in the first six months of 2021 in Afghanistan.

“These are only the deaths that the UN has been able to verify,” Ms Akunga said. “All forms of violence against children must immediately come to an end.”

A local ISIS branch known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IKSP) is known to carry out attacks in Kunduz.

In early October, IKSP killed or injured at least 100 people in a suicide attack at a Shiite mosque, the UN said.