Afghanistan’s dangerous legacy unearthed

SUMMARY: In September 2020, Safiullah, a father of six children living in Kabul, confronted a dangerous legacy of war when he unearthed buried explosives after digging a spot for a new septic tank. He feared that, if he meddled with the unexploded shells, they could destroy his home and possibly worse, kill and injure his family and neighbors. Safiullah quickly alerted the local police who called the Afghan government’s Directorate for Mine Action Coordination (DMAC) for assistance. DMAC turned to the HALO Trust (HALO) – an international non-governmental organization that conducts humanitarian demining operations all over the world – for their expertise and capabilities. HALO, which has conducted humanitarian demining work in Afghanistan and was founded and started in Afghanistan in 1988, directed three weapons and ammunition disposal teams to examine Safiullah’s neighborhood, with two of those teams funded by the United States and a third funded by Germany.