Pictured: The harrowing plight of children maimed in Afghanistan by the thousands of landmines scattered across the country after decades of war
- Up to 10million mines lay in schools, fields and pathways, and dozens of children are maimed and killed every day
- There are nearly 100,000 amputees in Afghanistan and the slow process of de-mining will take hundreds of years
- Mines from Britain and the U.S. have been found but the vast majority are from a war with Russia that ended in 1989
- Helicopter crews dropped millions of 'butterfly mines', which are made of green plastic and are mistaken for toys
These shocking pictures show the haunting legacy decades of war that have left millions of landmines in schools and fields which kill and maim dozens of children every day.
It's estimated that up to a million people have fallen victim to the sleeping weapons, which still kill and injure dozens of innocent Afghan children every day.
It's believed there are currently 10million mines spread around the impoverished country, which British and American forces left only last year after a campaign lasting more than a decade.
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But the majority of the mines, in grazing fields, schools, paths and waterways all over the country, are the remnants of a war with Russia that ended in 1989.
The Soviet Union went to war with the Mujehadien freedom fighters in 1979 and placed millions of mines during the ten-year campaign.
Today, mine clearance teams in Afghanistan still find literally dozens of types of landmines, mainly from former Soviet Union but also from Belgium, Italy, the United States and Britain.
The most infamous mine used during the Soviet Union's occupation period was the so-called 'butterfly' mine which is covered in green plastic and many children mistake for a toy.
It's not known exactly how many of the mines were dropped but it is believed that helicopter crews rained millions of the small mines from the air.
They were designed to flutter to the ground without exploding, but when stepped on, they take anything from one to 40 minutes to detonate.
The cruel devices are intended to maim, with a small charge that is usually non-lethal, instead designed to destroy a part of the lower leg which will hamper a person's mobility for the rest of their life.
Several de-mining organisations are now working in various places inside Afghanistan but it is a very slow process.
It takes weeks to clear a small piece of land as de-miners carefully scan the terrain inch by inch.
Despite the international efforts to de-mine parts of Afghanistan, it will take another few hundred years to make the country mine free, at the rate it is currently being cleared.
Every day, dozens of civilians across Afghanistan, often children step on landmines and loose limbs or even die.
Accurate and exhaustive figures of the disabled population are not available but it's estimated up to a million people have mobility impairments.
Of those, 50,000 to 100,000 are limb amputees and the number is constantly rising.
ICRC is the main organization dealing with these victims, providing emergency assistance to mine victims in hospitals and support during recovery in the ICRC physical rehabilitation center in Kabul.
Victims receive prosthetic limbs and extensive treatment at the centre, which teaches them how to live with their disabilities.
After months of rehab, most of them are able to find a way to fit back into society and can live a normal life again.
But relief work and de-mining continues to be difficult because of an uncertain political situation in the country, which means people will continue to fall victims to mines and may struggle to get the help they need.
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