A total of 17 people have been killed and 78 others injured by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO)this year in Chad, the United Nations has said.
A statement from the United Nations received here Sunday said mines and UXO are taking a heavy toll on Chadian civilians, particularly children who make up the majority of the victims of the deadly scourge in the African nation.
"This is one more occurrence, in a fatal wave of UXO explosions affecting innocent civilians and especially children," said Jean-Franois Basse, Child Protection Specialist with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.
In the most recent incident on Thursday, one child was killed and five others injured when a UXO they were playing with exploded in the eastern Chadian village of Tine, on the border with Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Two of the five wounded children had limbs amputated. But during the journey, which lasted over seven hours due to the heavy rains, one of them died. On arrival at the hospital, two of the five surviving children had limbs amputated.
"This is a sadly frequent event in Chad", said Christine Jamet, chief of Mission of Médecins Sans Frontières - Luxembourg (MSF-L) in Chad.
MSF-L supports the hospital, and provides medical care to the children who are now in a stable condition. Prior to that, four people were killed and 30 wounded when a UXO exploded in a crowded market in N'Djamena on 4 August.
"This is just one of the dramatic aspects of continued civil warfare in this country," Eliane Duthoit from the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Chad said.
Source:Xinhua
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