New figures by the Ministry of Public Health showed that conflict-related violence in the past 12 months has left more than 3,300 civilians dead and over 14,600 others wounded.
The time period measured is from September 16, 2018, to September 10, 2019.
“Our system is active in all 34 provinces and we collect data…and when the numbers are verified we enter them into the system,” said Mir Lais Mustafa, head of the Incident Response Department of the Command and Control Center.
The report does not make claims about which military or group is to blame, although it measures those killed in suicide attacks, which is 460 killed, and 1,200 wounded.
And while insurgent groups are responsible for a high number of civilian casualties, those monitoring the human cost of the war say that all sides in the fighting are responsible.
The Independent Human Rights Commission has raised concerns over civilian casualties due to Afghan and foreign forces’ operations and airstrikes in the country.
“Unfortunately, we have witnessed civilian casualties from the security forces operations in the Sayed Abad district of central Wardak province and Khogyani district of Nangarhar province,” said Abdul Shakur Mashkur, a commissioner at the Independent Human Rights Commission.
The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior state that they have made efforts to prevent civilian casualties during military operations.
“Security forces are trying hard to take care of civilians’ lives and not harm them,” said Rohullah Ahmadzai, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.
“Whenever civilians are harmed by a mistake of the security forces, we investigate the incident and those who have been negligent face serious punishment,” says Nusrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior.
But Selab Ghorzand, a civil society activist, asks: “Why do they operate this way and kill civilians? We think that they [security forces] have kangaroo courts like the Taliban and the Daesh, which is wrong.”
In its latest report, the United Nations also expressed concern over civilian casualties in the Afghan war and called on the parties involved in the war to take measures to reduce civilian’s casualties.
According to this latest measurement by the Command and Control Center, Baghlan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Helmand, and Kunar are the provinces with highest civilians’ casualties and Bamyan, Daikondi, Paktia and Balkh have the lowest civilian casualties.
