Kabul, Afghanistan: The Mid-Year report published by United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) indicates that killing of civilians in first six months of year 2018 has broken all previous records documented by
In first six months of 2018, there were 5,122 civilian casualties, 1,692 deaths and 3,430 civilians were injured.
Seven percent of killed civilians lost their lives in air attacks conducted either by NATO allied forces or Afghan Air force.
Report indicates that 42% of total civilian casualties took place due to attacks conducted by Taliban and 18% in attacked conducted by Daesh (Islamic State in Khorasan Province).
As many as 17% civilians were killed by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and two per cent were killed by international military and one per cent to pro-government armed groups.
Nine civilians including two children were killed every day in Afghanistan during the corresponding period (of report) of January to June 2018 while an average of 19 civilians, including five children, were injured every day.
Breakup indicates that 29% civilians were killed/injured in ground engagements, suicide bombing and complex attacks caused death of 28% and 7% were killed in air attacks.
Kabul, Nangarhar, Faryab, Helmand and Kandahar were top provinces in civilian’s causalities.
Report indicates that the trend towards more civilians being killed and injured in air strikes continued in 2018, with a 52 per cent increase in January to June this year compared to the first half of 2017 (353 civilian casualties; 149 deaths and 204 injured). That was itself a 43 per cent increase on the 2016 numbers.
Report also indicates that election staff was a prime target of killings, resulting in postponement of elections to October 20, 2018 from July 9, 2018. Parliamentary elections in Afghanistan were supposed to be held in October 2017 but were postponed as Afghan government failed to provide environment needed for fair and free elections.
