Human Cost of Afghanistan's War

The war in Afghanistan continues destroying lives, due to the direct consequences of violence and the war-induced breakdown of public health, security, and infrastructure. Civilians have been killed by crossfire, improvised explosive devices, assassinations, bombings, and night raids into houses of suspected insurgents.

Even in the absence of fighting, unexploded ordnance from previous wars and United States cluster bombs continue to kill. Hospitals in Afghanistan are treating large numbers of war wounded, including amputees and burn victims. The war has also inflicted invisible wounds.

Prior wars and civil conflict in the country have made Afghan society extremely vulnerable to the indirect effects of the current war. Those war effects include elevated rates of disease due to lack of clean drinking water, malnutrition, and reduced access to health care. Nearly every factor associated with premature death, poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of access to health care, environmental degradation is exacerbated by the current war. 

UNAMA documented 11,002 civilian casualties (3,545 deaths and 7,457 injured) in 2015, exceeding the previous record levels of civilian casualties that occurred in 2014. The latest figures show an overall increase of four per cent during 2015 in total civilian casualties from the previous year. UNAMA began its systematic documentation of civilian casualties since 2009.

The war has also inflicted invisible wounds. In 2015, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported that fully two-thirds of Afghans suffer from mental health problems. Prior wars and civil conflict in the country have made Afghan society extremely vulnerable to the reverberating effects of the current war. Those war effects include elevated rates of disease due to lack of clean drinking water, malnutrition, and reduced access to health care. 

Nearly every factor associated with premature death poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of access to health care, environmental degradation is exacerbated by the current war. About 121000 people have been killed in the Afghanistan war zones since 2001. More than 71,000 of those killed have been civilians.

Afghan land is contaminated with unexploded ordnance which kills and injures tens of thousands of Afghans, especially children, as they travel and go about their daily chores. The war has exacerbated the effects of poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation, lack of access to health care, and environmental degradation on Afghans’ health.

Almost 10 years since the Taliban government were ousted in a U.S.-led military campaign, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous and violent countries in the world. More than 9 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the country, an increase of 13 percent, according to the United Nations. It said the number of casualties in the first nine of months of 2015 – 8,397 – was the highest recorded, and included a 15 percent increase in child casualties.