Armed conflict in the country has left thousands of victims since the beginning of the “war against terror”.
KABUL, 14 February 2016 – The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA Mr. Nicholas Haysom, and UNAMA Human Rights Director Danielle Bell release the 2015 Annual Report on Protection of Civilian in Armed Conflict at a Kabul press conference in Kabul. Photo by UNAMA / Fardin Waezi.
According to the UN, Afghanistan faced the highest rates of civilian casualties since 2009 after a long struggle against extremism in the country.
As informed on a report about civilian casualties released on Sunday, in 2015 there were 11 002 victims, including a total of 3 545 civilian deaths. About 7 460 injured people left the conflict with Taliban militants and some other extremist groups like the KPF.
Perhaps the most affected afghan citizens are women and children, who have been suffering the impact of the gruesome combats between the government forces and the different militant groups in the country; therefore, the percentage of women killed in the conflict rose in 37%, and the numbers regarding children’s deaths increased on 14% on 2015.
Nicholas Haysom, chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) claimed that the impact the armed conflict is having over civilians is “totally unacceptable” calling on “those inflicting this pain on the people of Afghanistan to take concrete action to protect civilians and put a stop to the killing and maiming”.
Back to the report about civilian casualties in Afghanistan, the main causes of affection are ground engagements (37%) and roadside bombs (21%).
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan claimed that these percentages are the highest rates of civilian casualties since 2009.
The latest US strike on a Doctors without Borders hospital on October 2015 left 42 people dead and 43 more injured. This event increased in 9% the rate of civilians killed by foreign forces, which killed 103 Afghan citizens and left 67 wounded.
Taliban militants and some other extremist groups are believed to be the main responsible of the deaths and injuries of civilians in Afghanistan, at 62%.
Since 2001, the country has faced severe violent and insecure conditions with the invasion of US and allied troops on what was called a war on terror that finally managed to remove Taliban from power but couldn’t actually eradicate extremism on its totality.
Since 2009, the UN has been systematically recording the numbers of civilian casualties in the central-Asian nation, documenting till the present about 59 000 injuries and deaths.
Written by Lisbeth Mechter