Afghanistan Times
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It has become so much commonplace in Afghanistan to see the spiral of violence tenaciously take its toll on innocent Afghans, especially children, for more than four decades. A recent report by a UK-based children’s rights organization, Save the Children, has revealed that every single child born and raised in Afghanistan has experienced war and conflict since the start of the ongoing 18-year war between the foreign forces and the Taliban. However, this war extends beyond the past 18 years and has been ongoing, while occasionally alternating with interludes of relative calm, for the past four decades. It has victimized mainly the Afghan children, youth and women who have been enduring such a perpetual fate. Against the backdrop of the conflict between foreign troops and the Taliban, which has been ongoing for 18 years now, the international charity estimated that 20 million Afghan children wake up every day in fear of death. The report also said that over 12,500 children were killed or injured in the violence in 2015-2018 alone, while 274 children were recruited for combat or support roles. Such a situation draws a bleak picture of Afghanistan’s new and young generation, who has known nothing else but war and insecurity.
In the current state of affairs and insecurity, almost every Afghan starts their day in fear of gunshots or bombs and of being killed or injured. Afghans don’t know if their family members will make it home back at the end of the day. This situation is very distressing and leads to psychosocial issues among the children. Experiencing nothing else except war throughout the formative years is catastrophic for today’s children. They would grow up with the ideas and experiences of war for their whole life – something that bodes ill for the future of the country. It’s upon the shoulders of the soon to be sworn-in president and future leaders of this country to seek ways to bring to halt these circumstances the children are suffering from and think of the posterity and future generations – who would bear the consequences of these wars. They should renew the call for negotiations and make peace with the Taliban and thus pave ground for a tranquil and calm life for the Afghan children – who are considered the seeds of every society’s development.
