UNITED NATIONS, Jul 27 (NNN-XINHUA) – More women and children were killed and wounded in Afghanistan, in the first half of 2021, than in the first six months of any year, since records began in 2009, a United Nations report revealed yesterday.
A particularly sharp rise in casualties occurred in May, when international military forces began withdrawing from the country and fighting intensified, following the Taliban offensive to take territory from government forces.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported in its Afghanistan Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict midyear update that, there were 1,659 civilians killed and 3,254 wounded, a 47 percent increase, compared with the same period last year.
UNAMA said, it was particularly concerned about the acute rise in the number of civilian casualties in the period from May 1, with almost as many recorded in the May-June period, as in the entire preceding four months.
Women and children made up close to half of all these civilian casualties, at 46 percent, according to the report. Thirty-two percent were children, with 468 killed and 1,214 wounded. Fourteen percent of civilian casualties were women, with 219 killed and 508 wounded.
“I implore the Taliban and Afghan leaders, to take heed of the conflict’s grim and chilling trajectory and its devastating impact on civilians,” said Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan.
“The report provides a clear warning that unprecedented numbers of Afghan civilians will perish and be maimed this year, if the increasing violence is not stemmed,” Lyons added in a statement, accompanying the report.
The leading causes of civilian casualties in the first half of 2021 were the extensive use of improvised explosive devices by opposition forces, ground engagements between parties, targeted killings by non-state groups and airstrikes by the Afghan Air Force.
UNAMA said, it was deeply concerned about these attacks, which deliberately target civilians, including government workers, human rights defenders, media workers, religious elders, and humanitarian workers, and sectarian-motivated attacks.
Children, the report stated, were deliberately targeted, in at least one occasion. The most shocking incident was the May 8 attack outside the Sayed ul-Shuhada school in Kabul, which resulted in more than 300 civilian casualties, mostly schoolgirls, including 85 killed, for which no group has claimed responsibility.– NNN-XINHUA
