UNITED NATIONS: The number of Afghan civilians killed or wounded in the first half of this year reached a record high as the the Taliban gained momentum, a United Nations report released on Monday said.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 1,601 civilian deaths and 3,565 injured in the six months through June, an increase of four per cent compared to the same period last year and the highest since the agency began counting in 2009The report said in the first six months of this year, 5,166 civilians were either killed or maimed in Afghanistan, a half-year record.

Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’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 “to do all they can to spare civilians from the horrors of war.”

“Every single casualty documented in this report – people killed while praying, working, studying, fetching water, recovering in hospitals – […] 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’ suffering and increase protection,” Yamamoto said.

“Platitudes 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,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016