July 17, 2025 08:23 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Air India finds 'no issues' with fuel control switch on Boeing 787-8 planes after precautionary checks | Anchor runs mid-telecast as Israeli airstrikes hit Syria's state TV building | Rare oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi sells for an astounding Rs 1.7 crore | Brother of Yemeni man killed by Nimisha Priya opposes pardon of Kerala nurse | Can't win today's warfare with outdated weapons: CDS General Anil Chauhan seeks upgradation of India's defence system | Shubhanshu Shukla returns to Earth after his 18-day mission to space | India's Got Latent host Samay Raina, other influencers appear in SC over remarks mocking disabled | Drunk teenager who rammed Porsche into two-wheeler leaving two dead won't be tried as an adult | Jaishankar calls on China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing | Jaishankar calls on China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing

Afghanistan: Ground combat taking 'devastating' civilian toll, says UN, reporting sharp rise in casualties

| | Jul 10, 2014, at 05:44 am
New York, July 10 (IBNS) The nature of the Afghan conflict has added yet another grim dimension as ground combat among the warring parties surpassed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as the leading cause of conflict-related death and injury to Afghan civilians in the first six months of 2014, the United Nations reported on Wednesday.

This “disturbing upward spiral” has meant the number of children and other vulnerable Afghans killed and wounded since the beginning g of the year rose dramatically and “is proving to be devastating”, according to the sobering new survey released in Kabul by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

“More efforts are needed to protect civilians from the harms of conflict and to ensure accountability for those deliberately and indiscriminately killing them,” said the Director of Human Rights for UNAMA, Georgette Gagnon.

Attacks which fail to distinguish between a military and civilian objective and attacks that deliberately target civilians are serious violations of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes.

The 2014 Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, prepared in coordination with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), notes that while civilian casualties caused by IEDs also increased to unprecedented levels over the same period in 2013, deaths and injuries caused by mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire in ground engagements jumped dramatically as the frequency and intensity of these incidents increased in 2014, particularly in areas with concentrated civilian populations.

“The nature of the conflict in Afghanistan is changing in 2014 with an escalation of ground engagements in civilian-populated areas,” said the UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General in Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Ján Kubiš. “The impact on civilians, including the most vulnerable Afghans, is proving to be devastating.”

From 1 January to 30 June 2014, UNAMA documented 4,853 civilian casualties, up 24 per cent over the same period in 2013.

 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.