KABUL - The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Mine Action Coordination Centre for Afghanistan (MACCA) condemn in strongest terms the brutal killing of four deminers from the Demining Agency for Afghanistan (DAFA) in Farah province. PRINT

Thirty one individuals, among them 20 deminers, were first abducted while working on life-saving activities in Shamalga village of Balabuluk district on Wednesday 6 July 2011, and then four of them were brutally executed.

Alan Macdonald, Director for the Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan said," MACCA is appalled by this incident and calls on all Afghans to support and respect the efforts being made by their fellow countrymen to clear Afghanistan of landmines and other explosive remnants of war."

“Deminers are providing life-saving services to vulnerable Afghans regardless of any political, religious, ethnic or geographical consideration,” added Michael Keating United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.

Attacks on those who deliver humanitarian services are against international humanitarian law.

Such attacks are totally unacceptable.

The United Nations urges the Government and all those in a position of responsibility to do everything possible to investigate this unprecedented incident and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The United Nations family in Afghanistan expresses its profound grief to families of those who have lost their beloved ones in this terrible incident.