The sheer number of landmines scattered indiscriminately sometimes leads children to regard them as harmless everyday objects. Decades after they are laid, they are capable of killing and maiming. An APM deployed today could still be active in the middle of the next century. Since the end of the Second World War, children have been dying from accidental contact with landmines and other explosives left by opposing forces. All survivors will, have permanent and severe disabilities with all the social, psychological and economic implications of being an amputee.
Children are particularly vulnerable because they are closer to the blast.
Further, their ability to survive the substantial blood loss due to mine injury is minimal. Those who make it to hospital have to undergo a series of operations, including, in many instances, amputation of one or more limbs. Some are permanently blinded. Maimed for life, only a small percentage receive adequate rehabilitation. The rest are forced to fend for themselves as best they can.