The international troops have withdrawn, the Taliban are gaining strength: In Afghanistan the number of victims from the population is increasing.
For two months this year, the UN has recorded worrying records.
Kabul - With the start of the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan, the number of civilian casualties has increased again significantly.
In the first six months of the year, nearly 5,200 civilians were injured or killed - an increase of 47 percent compared to the first half of 2020. According to a report the UN mission to Afghanistan published in Kabul on Monday.
Military offensives since troop withdrawal
The increase was mainly due to the months of May and June, it said.
So it coincides with the withdrawal of international troops and the start of several military offensives by the militant Islamist Taliban.
The last soldiers in the Bundeswehr left Afghanistan at the end of June after almost 20 years.
The last US combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of August.
According to the UN report, 2,392 civilians were wounded or killed in May and June alone - almost as many as in the entire four months before.
The UN recorded record values for these two months: never since records began in 2009 have so many civilian casualties been documented in these months.
Number of civilian casualties as high as in record years
In the entire first half of the year, the number of civilian victims with 1659 killed and 3524 injured is as high as in the record years 2016 to 2018. At that time, the United Nations also recorded more than 5000 victims in the first six months.
The Taliban have conquered more than 160 of the country's 400 districts since the beginning of May.
According to an analysis by the Afghanistan Analysts Network think tank, the UN report refutes any notion that the recent Taliban conquests were practically bloodless.
Even the beginning of peace negotiations between the government in Kabul and the Taliban did not lead to the hoped-for improvement for the civilian population.
The negotiations are stalling.
Observers increasingly fear that the Taliban want to take over the country militarily.
The UN report states that the pursuit of a military solution will only exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people.
dpa