U.N.: Afghanistan civilian casualties down in 2017
Airstrike deaths increase; more than 10,000 affected
KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of civilians killed and wounded in the war in Afghanistan declined last year, but the number of deaths from airstrikes was on the rise, according to a new United Nations report released on Thursday.
The total number of civilian casualties decreased by 9 percent in 2017, compared with 2016, the U.N. mission said in its annual report on the subject.
“The chilling statistics in this report provide credible data about the war’s impact, but the figures alone cannot capture the appalling human suffering inflicted on ordinary people, especially women and children,” said Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan.
The 2017 Annual Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Afghanistan found that between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2017, there were 10,453 civilian casualties — 3,438 deaths and 7,015 wounded.
That compares with a total 11,434 casualties for the same period in 2016, when there were 3,510 deaths and 7,924 wounded.
But the decline in total deaths was tempered by the report’s finding that the number of airstrikes conducted by international military forces and Afghan air forces increased significantly — and with it the number of airstrike-related deaths.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 631 civilian casualties — 295 deaths and 336 wounded — from aerial operations conducted by pro-government forces. That’s a 7 percent increase from 2016, and the highest number from airstrikes in a single year since 2009. Aerial operations accounted for 6 percent of all civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2017.
Danielle Bell, a U.N. official for human rights in Afghanistan, said the reduction “is an important step” but cautioned that 2017 was the “fourth consecutive year, where the emission recorded more than 10,000 civilian causalities.”
The report attributes close to two thirds of all casualties to militant groups fighting the government, mainly the Taliban, but also IS and other, undetermined anti-government elements.