Afghan civilian casualties hit record high in 2015
UN report cites 11,002 civilian casualties, including 3,545 deaths
KABUL: The number of civilians killed orw ounded in Afghanistan last year was the highest recorded since 2009, the UN said Sunday, with children paying a particularly heavy price.
There were 11,002 civilian casualties in 2015 including 3,545 deaths, the UN said in its annual report on Afghan civilians in armed conflict, a four per cent rise over the previous high in 2014.
“The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable,” said Nicholas Haysom, the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan.
“We call 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.”
Fighting and attacks in populated areas and major cities were described as the main causes of civilian deaths in 2015, underscoring a push by Taliban militants into urban centres “with a high likelihood of causing civilian harm”, the report stated.
We call 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.
The UN began compiling the annual report in 2009.
Including Taliban-claimed attacks, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan assigned responsibility for 62 per cent of total civilian casualties in 2015 to anti-government elements.
But the report also noted a 28 per cent year-on-year surge in the number of casualties caused by
Nicholas Haysom, the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan
pro-government forces, including the Afghan army and international troops.
Seventeen per cent of all casualties in 2015 were caused by such forces, the report said.
It was not possible to say which side caused the remaining 21 per cent of casualties.
The report criticised Afghan forces in particular for their reliance on explosives in populated areas.
The statistics in the report do not “reflect the real horror”, Haysom told a press conference yesterday.
“The real cost... is measured in the maimed bodies of children, the communities who have to live with loss, the grief of colleagues and relatives, the families who make do without a breadwinner, the parents who grieved the lost children, the children who grieved the lost parents,” he said.
One in every four casualties in 2015 was a child, with the report documenting a 14 percent increase in child casualties over the year.
“Tell these people not to attack children,” it quotes a 12-year-old survivor of a mortar attack that killed four others as saying. “Iwant to study, not to die.” While fighting and improvised explosive devices were the top two killers of children, unexploded ordnance picked up and played with by curious and unsuspecting youngsters also claimed a heavy toll, killing 113 children – an average of two a week – and injuring 252more in 2015.