Afghan casualties hit record high 11,000 in 2015 – UN report

14 February 2016 – The United Nations reported today that Afghan hostilities in 2015 left more than 3,500 civilians dead, including an unprecedented number of children – one in four casualties over the past year was a child – and nearly 7,500 others wounded, making this the highest number of civilian casualties recorded.

“This report records yet another rise in the number of civilians hurt or killed. The harm done to civilians is totally unacceptable,” said Nicholas Haysom, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in the country (UNAMA), in a press release.

The annual report, produced by the UNAMA in coordination with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Office (OHCHR), shows that increased ground fighting in and around populated areas, along with suicide and other attacks in major cities, were the main causes of conflict-related civilian deaths and injuries in 2015.

“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 of civilians in 2016,” stressed Mr. Haysom.

UNAMA documented 11,002 civilian casualties (3,545 deaths and 7,457 injured) in 2015, exceeding the previous record levels of civilian casualties that occurred in 2014. The latest figures show an overall increase of four per cent during 2015 in total civilian casualties from the previous year. UNAMA began its systematic documentation of civilian casualties in 2009.

At a press conference today in Kabul, Mr. Haysom told reporters that while the figures in themselves are “awful,” the statistics and percentages contained in the report do not really reflect the real horror of the phenomenon.

“The real cost we are talking about in these figures 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 have to make do without a breadwinner, the parents who grieve for lost children, the children who grieve for lost parents […] these are the real consequences of the acts described in this report,” he emphasized. - Read More at the UN
Afghan casualties hit record high 11,000 in 2015 – UN report

Conflicts and violence take 'huge toll' on children in 2015 – UN envoy - More