16 UN mine-clearing personnel kidnapped in Afghanistan

Gunmen abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United Nations in eastern Afghanistan,a provincial police chief said on Sunday. The men were kidnapped as they traveled between Paktia and Khost provinces on Saturday,said Paktia’s police chief Azizullah Wardak. While insurgents operate in the area,Wardak could not say who was responsible for the kidnapping. Similar incidents have happened twice before in Paktia but were resolved successfully,he said.

Wardak criticised the demining team,part of the UN’s effort to rid the country of decades of planted land mines,for going into the area without informing the police. All of those kidnapped were Afghans.

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world,and the increase in violence amid a thriving Taliban insurgency has slowed clearance work. Some 50 people are killed and maimed by mines every month. Two-thirds of the country’s mines have been cleared over the past two decades,with the rest expected to be removed by 2013. But experts fear Afghanistan can no longer meet that goal because of increased fighting and a drop in international funding.