WUNRN
AFGHANISTAN - WOMEN & GIRLS
INCREASINGLY VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE & FEMICIDE
By
Dylan Welch - Kabul - February 19, 2013
Kabul (Reuters) - 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, according to the United Nations.
Reinforcing
fears about a rise in insecurity as foreign combat troops prepare to leave by
next year, the United Nations
said the country faced a growing threat from the return of armed groups.
The threat to
An annual U.N. report
on civilian casualties in Afghanistan showed
a 12 percent drop in civilian deaths in 2012 to 2,754, from 3,131 in 2011.
It was the first fall
in the number since the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA) started measuring such casualties in 2007.
But despite the good
news, the United Nations said there had been a 20 percent 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 U.N. human rights director in
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 United Nations said.
"HIGH HUMAN
COST"
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
While NATO-led
foreign forces had reduced the number of civilian casualties they caused by 46
per cent last year, from 1,088 to 587, deaths and injuries caused by insurgents
increased by 9 percent, the United Nations 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
The Taliban and other
insurgent groups were responsible for 81 per cent of all civilian casualties
last year, with bombs, or improvised explosive devices as they are known, the
single biggest killer of civilians, the United Nations said.