KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban are assisting The Halo Trust, a demining charity, in clearing landmines across Afghanistan, including many planted by them during the past two decades of conflict, according to a report citing officials from the organization.
The British outlet The Standard quoted Callum Peebles, a program manager for The Halo Trust, as saying that the organization has also been aiding communities impacted by natural disasters, such as floods and landslides.
In one incident described by Peebles, Halo Trust staff discovered an improvised explosive device (IED) lodged in a drainage culvert beneath a major road. Upon arrival, accompanied by a local security escort, a Taliban member admitted to having planted the device.
“We were inspecting it to determine how to destroy it, and the security guard who was part of our escort said, ‘Oh, that’s one I laid,’” Peebles recalled. The same individual went on to identify other areas nearby where additional mines had been planted.
“For me, that was one of those extraordinary moments where you think, wow, it’s very helpful these people are here, and there’s been no limitation on the information we’ve been able to gather,” Peebles said.
The Halo Trust, which has operated in Afghanistan since 1988, currently works in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces. The organization has destroyed more than 800,000 landmines during its tenure in the region.
Peebles noted that the organization has even engaged directly with former bomb-makers to better understand the placement and logic behind the devices. “We were able to have conversations with IED makers who explained the reasoning behind where and why they laid particular explosives,” he said.
The legacy of decades of war continues to haunt Afghanistan, where an estimated 60 children are killed or injured each month due to landmines and other explosives left behind.
