Civilian casualties of the armed conflict in Afghanistan this year are projected to equal or exceed the country’s deadliest year on record, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) announced Wednesday in Kabul.
According to UNAMA’s 2015 Midyear Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 4,921 civilian casualties were documented in the first half of 2015. The 1,592 deaths and 3,329 injuries represent a one percent increase in total civilian casualties compared to the same period in 2014, the deadliest year for Afghan civilians on record.
Some 90 percent of civilian casualties resulted from ground engagement, including “improvised explosive devices, complex and suicide attacks, and targeted killings,” the report says.
The report attributed 70 percent of civilian casualties to anti-government forces, a slight decrease from 2014. Targeted killings of civilians perceived to be supporting the government were leading cause of death.
Civilian deaths and injuries caused by pro-government forces represented 16 percent of total civilian casualties — 15 percent attributed to Afghan National Security Forces and pro-government militias, and 1-percent attributed to NATO and U.S. forces. The casualties from pro-government forces represent a 60 percent increase over the same period last year.
Rise in Women, Child Casualties
“Afghan civilians have suffered far too long from this destructive conflict,” UNAMA chief Nicholas Haysom said. “Until peace is achieved, all parties to the conflict must fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law to minimize the impact of the conflict on civilians and match their public statements on the protection of civilians with concrete actions.”
Prepared in coordination with the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), the report also shows a 23 percent increase in women civilian casualties and a 13 percent increase in child casualties.
“The rise in the numbers of women and children killed and maimed from conflict-related violence is particularly disturbing,” said Danielle Bell, UNAMA Director of Human Rights. “This year, UNAMA recorded the highest number of children and women casualties compared to the same period in previous years. All parties to the conflict must undertake stronger measures to protect civilians from harm. When the conflict kills or maims a mother, child, sister or brother, the repercussions for families and communities are devastating and long-lasting.”
As the nearly 14 year long war continues, daily life for many Afghan’s remains fraught with peril.
“This report lays bare the heart-rending, prolonged suffering of civilians in Afghanistan, who continue to bear the brunt of the armed conflict and live in insecurity and uncertainty over whether a trip to a bank, a tailoring class, to a court room or a wedding party, may be their last,” the reported quoted U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
UNAMA’s 2014 report recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in a single year since the UN started keeping track in 2007, when civilian deaths and injuries topped 10,000.
This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Afghanistan service.
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