{"id":4304,"date":"2016-07-25T20:09:37","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T20:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=4304"},"modified":"2016-07-25T20:10:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T20:10:06","slug":"afghan-civilian-casualties-and-child-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/afghan-civilian-casualties-and-child-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan civilian casualties and child deaths hit record high in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The number of\u00a0children killed and wounded in the conflict during the first six months of the year, the highest-ever toll the U.N. has recorded.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit a record high in the first half of 2016, a latest United Nations report <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/apps\/news\/story.asp?NewsID=54543#.V5ZNYzV95H0\" target=\"_blank\">showed<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At least 5,166 civilians were either killed or wounded in Afghanistan, in the first six months of the year 2016 &#8211;\u00a0a half-year record since 2009.\u00a0The U.N. mission in Afghanistan on Monday reported a worrying increase in the number of civilians killed and wounded in the country this year, making it likely that 2016 will be the worst year since 2009, when the organization began keeping track.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At least 1,601 Afghans have been killed and 3,655 wounded so far in 2016, according to the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/unama.unmissions.org\/sites\/default\/files\/protection_of_civilians_in_armed_conflict_midyear_report_2016_final.pdf\">annual midyear report<\/a><\/span>\u00a0by the\u00a0U.N.\u00a0Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (<span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"http:\/\/unama.unmissions.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">UNAMA<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One-third of casualties between January and June 2016 were children, with 388 killed and 1,121 wounded, 18 percent more than in the first half of 2015, a figure the UN described as &#8220;alarming and shameful&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cEvery civilian casualty represents a failure of commitment and should be a call to action for parties to the conflict to take meaningful, concrete steps to reduce civilians&#8217; suffering and increase protection,\u201d the U.N.\u2019s top official in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, said in the report.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cPlatitudes not backed by meaningful action ring hollow over time. History and the collective memory of the Afghan people will judge leaders of all parties to this conflict by their actual conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General&#8217;s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, stressed that the report must serve as a call to action by parties to the conflict \u201cto do all they can to spare civilians from the horrors of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cEvery single casualty documented in this report \u2013 people killed while praying, working, studying, fetching water, recovering in hospitals \u2013 [\u2026] represents a failure of commitment and should be a call to action for parties to the conflict to take meaningful, concrete steps to reduce civilians&#8217; suffering and increase protection,\u201d Yamamoto said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cPlatitudes not backed by meaningful action ring hollow over time. History and the collective memory of the Afghan people will judge leaders of all parties to this conflict by their actual conduct,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Casualties attributed to pro-Government forces increased 47%<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">While anti-Government elements remain responsible for the majority \u2013 60 per cent \u2013 of civilian casualties, there was an increase in the number of civilians killed and injured by pro-Government forces between January and June this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During this period, UNAMA documented 1,180 civilian casualties attributable to pro-Government forces, which is 23 per cent of the total so far this year, but a 47 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, primarily as a result of ground engagements.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a title=\"Afghan civilian casualties and child deaths hit record high in 2016\" href=\"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/afghan-civilian-casualties-and-child-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2016\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-4306\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Afghan-civilian-death-and-injuries-January-2016-June-2016-678x1024.png?resize=678%2C1024\" alt=\"Afghans killed and wounded from 2009 to 2016. Infograph by IRIA\" width=\"678\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Afghan-civilian-death-and-injuries-January-2016-June-2016.png?resize=678%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 678w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Afghan-civilian-death-and-injuries-January-2016-June-2016.png?resize=199%2C300&amp;ssl=1 199w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Afghan-civilian-death-and-injuries-January-2016-June-2016.png?w=716&amp;ssl=1 716w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The number of\u00a0children killed and wounded in the conflict during the first six months of the year, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[9,137,113,11],"class_list":["post-4304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-afghanistan","tag-asia","tag-security","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/UNAMA_Afghan_casualties_2016.jpg?fit=678%2C386&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-17q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4304"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4310,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions\/4310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}