Photos | When school’s not safe: Afghan war takes toll on kids
Updated On Aug 16, 2019 12:34 PM IST
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the number of attacks against Afghan schools has tripled last year compared to 2017. By the end of 2018, more than 1,000 Afghan schools had been shut due to conflict, denying about 500,000 Afghan kids access to education. The US and Taliban claim progress in ongoing peace talks, but little has changed for Afghans, and recent attacks underscore how children remain as vulnerable as ever in the grinding conflict.
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Updated on Aug 16, 2019 12:34 PM IST
Afghan students take mid-term exams at a school in Kabul. The US and Taliban claim progress in ongoing peace talks, but little has changed for Afghans, and recent attacks underscore how children remain as vulnerable as ever in the grinding conflict. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Updated on Aug 16, 2019 12:34 PM IST
Afghan school children study at the destroyed Papen High School in Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province. A UN tally found last year was the deadliest on record, with at least 3,804 civilian deaths caused by the war -- including 927 children. And in the first six months of 2019, children accounted for nearly one-third of civilian casualties. “In the first few days after the attack, you could see the trauma on students’ faces, they would cry every minute,” the school director Niamatullah Hamdard said. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Sixteen-year-old Madina still has nightmares about the day two huge blasts tore through her school in Kabul, showering shards of broken window glass on her and other students. She survived, with lacerations to her arms and legs. The physical wounds are slowly healing, but she remains haunted by the stress of the attack. “It was a scary day. I still have nightmares, I cannot focus, it was very hard to prepare for exams,” Madina recalled. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Updated on Aug 16, 2019 12:34 PM IST
In the arid Deh Bala district of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, the Papen high school has been reduced to rubble amid fighting between government forces and the Islamic State group. Omar Ghorzang, a school district official, said the stress takes a huge toll. “When the teachers are talking to them, the kids talk among themselves and do bizarre things. They cannot pay attention”, Ghorzang said. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Amir Gul, aged about 15, said he and his classmates are constantly anxious. “We are always afraid a bomb might go off. Everyone is scared and no one can study,” he said. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the number of attacks against Afghan schools tripled last year compared to 2017. By the end of 2018, more than 1,000 Afghan schools had been shut due to conflict, denying about 500,000 Afghan kids access to education. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Psychotherapist Bethan McEvoy, who works as an education advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Kabul, said it can be tough to assess the prevalence of mental illness and emotional trauma resulting from school attacks. That’s because symptoms of psychological trauma often manifest only after the shock has subsided -- and in Afghanistan, people can spend years living through one stressful event after another. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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At the Kabul school, much of the debris had been cleared, but twisted metal poked through a collapsed roof and the crunch of broken glass could still be felt underfoot in areas away from where the kids play. It is not just insurgent groups responsible for the killing. A recent Pentagon report found US forces in Afghanistan caused 134 civilian casualties in 2018. Of the 76 among them who died, 31 were children. (WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP)
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Updated on Aug 16, 2019 12:34 PM IST