Females majority of Afghan war victims
2013-02-19 15:06
Kabul - Afghan women and girls are increasingly victims
of violence with a 20% increase last year in the number killed or injured even
though the number of civilian casualties fell for the first time in years, the
UN said on Tuesday.
Reinforcing fears about a rise in insecurity as foreign
combat troops prepare to leave by next year, the UN said the country faced a
growing threat from the return of armed groups.
The threat to Afghanistan's civilians in the 11-year war
has become a significant source of stress in the relationship between President
Hamid Karzai and his international backers, particularly when civilian deaths
are caused by foreign forces.
An annual UN report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan
showed a 12% drop in civilian deaths in 2012 to 2 754, from 3 131 in 2011.
It was the first fall in the number since the UN
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) started measuring such casualties in
2007.
But despite the good news, the UN said there had been a
20% increase in the number of Afghan women and girls killed or injured in 2012,
with more than 300 women and girls killed and more than 560 injured.
"The sad reality is that they were killed and
injured while going about their daily work, their daily business," said UN
human rights director in Afghanistan, Georgette Gagnon.
The return of armed groups opposing the Taliban
insurgency but not directly linked to government forces was also documented,
particularly in the country's north and northeast.
"In some areas, such groups had a presence and held
power and control greater than local Afghan national security forces," the
UN said.
‘High human cost’
Afghanistan was plagued by violence between rival
factions for much of the 1990s. As a result, many people welcomed the Taliban
when they spread out from the south of the country vowing to end the factional
chaos.
There are fears that militia factions will again arise as
Western forces wind down their operations and withdraw by the end of 2014,
especially if government forces struggle against the Taliban insurgency.
The report's findings underscored "the continuing
high human cost of armed conflict in Afghanistan", the UN special envoy to
Afghanistan, Jan Kubis, said.
While Nato-led foreign forces had reduced the number of
civilian casualties they caused by 46% last year, from 1 088 to 587, deaths and
injuries caused by insurgents increased by 9%, the UN said.
The drop in civilian casualties caused by Nato and
government forces was attributed to fewer clashes and fewer air strikes in
residential areas following a ban last year.
On Monday, President Karzai issued a similar ban for
Afghan forces, forbidding them from calling in Nato air strikes in residential
areas.
His decree came several days after Afghan forces called
in a Nato air strike on a village in the eastern border province of Kunar,
resulting in the deaths of 10 civilians, including five children and four
women.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups were responsible
for 81% of all civilian casualties last year, with bombs, or improvised
explosive devices as they are known, the single biggest killer of civilians,
the UN said.
