More than 200 killed, injured since US-Taliban peace deal

A new report by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has highlighted the continuing high toll of violence against civilians, despite the peace deal between the United States and the Taliban signed on 29 February 2020.

In various incidents, including hostage-taking and terrorist attacks, 202 civilians have been killed and injured (83 killed, including eight women and eight children, and 119 wounded, including 15 women and 16 children).

Those killed or injured also include civil servants, influential people and religious scholars.

About 35 people have been taken hostage by the Taliban, whose fate remains unknown to the Commission.

The AIHRC has found the Taliban responsible for 50% of those killed or taken hostage, with the rest carried out by ISIS or unidentified groups and individuals.

Hostage-taking and killing of civilians and civil servants and all those who are not directly involved in the hostilities or who, for any other reason, are no longer able to participate in the conflict, is strictly prohibited under the Common Article 3 of the Four Geneva Conventions.

Such actions are regarded as war crimes, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Commission, while condemning the killing of civilians and expressing its condolences to the families of the victims, calls on the parties to the conflict, especially the Taliban, to put an end to the abduction and killing of civilians and civil servants.

Date: 14 April 2020

Source: Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission