The UN yesterday said it has documented a significant level of civilians killed and wounded in attacks in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, despite a stark reduction in casualties compared with previous years of war and insurgency.
According to a new report by the UN Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, since the takeover in the middle of August 2021 through the end of last month, there were 3,774 civilian casualties, including 1,095 people killed in violence in the country.
That compares with 8,820 civilian casualties — including 3,035 killed — in just 2020, according to an earlier UN report.
Photo: Reuters
Three-quarters of the attacks since the Taliban seized power were with improvised explosive devices (IED) in “populated areas, including places of worship, schools and markets,” the report said.
Among those killed were 92 women and 287 children.
A press statement from the UN that followed yesterday’s report said the figures indicate a significant increase in civilian harm resulting from IED attacks on places of worship — mostly belonging to the minority Shiite Muslims — compared with the three-year period prior to the Taliban takeover.
The statement also said that at least 95 people were killed in attacks on schools, educational facilities and other places that targeted the predominantly Shiite Hazara community.
The statement said that the majority of the IED attacks were carried out by the region’s affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — a Sunni militant group and a main Taliban rival.
“These attacks on civilians and civilian objects are reprehensible and must stop,” said Fiona Frazer, head of UNAMA’s Human Rights Service.
She urged the Taliban to “uphold their obligation to protect the right to life” of Afghans.
However, the UN report said a “significant number” of the deaths resulted from attacks that were never claimed or that the UN mission could not attribute to any group.
It did not provide the number for those fatalities.
The report also expressed concern about “the lethality of suicide attacks” since the Taliban takeover, with fewer attacks causing more civilian causalities.
It added that the attacks were carried out amid a nationwide financial and economic crisis.
With the sharp drop in donor funding since the takeover, victims are struggling to get access to “medical, financial and psychosocial support” under the Taliban-led government, the report said.
Frazer said that even though Afghan “victims of armed conflict and violence struggled to access essential medical, financial and psychosocial support” prior to the takeover, this has become more difficult after the Taliban took power.
“Help for the victims of violence is now even harder to come by because of the drop in donor funding for vital services,” she added.
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