ISLAMABAD — The United Nations (UN) said Tuesday, June 27, 2023, that 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 to previous years of war and insurgency.
According to a new report by the UN mission in Afghanistan, or Unama, since the takeover in mid-August 2021 and until the end of May, 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.
The Taliban seized the country in August 2021 while US and Nato troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war.
According to the U.N. report, three-quarters of the attacks since the Taliban seized power were with improvised explosive devices in “populated areas, including places of worship, schools and markets,” the report said. Among those killed were 92 women and 287 children.
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 to the three-year period prior to the Taliban takeover, according to a press statement that followed the report.
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.
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 of 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 noted 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 current 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.
The UN report also demanded an immediate halt to attacks and said it holds the Taliban government responsible for the safety of Afghanistan.
The Taliban said their administration took over when Afghanistan was “on the verge of collapse” and that they “managed to rescue the country and government from a crisis” by making sound decisions and through proper management. (AP)