Tens of Thousands Died in Two Decades of Conflicts in Afghanistan

The last two decades of conflicts in Afghanistan has taken tens of thousands of lives from civilians to security force members and from international troops to the Taliban.

In this report, TOLOnews has summed up overall casualties inflicted to all parties to the conflict as well as civilians in Afghanistan. The findings show that civilians have paid a high price for the ongoing war that started with the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

Figures by Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission indicate that 31,113 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in the past 13 years and 62,662 more were wounded.

The commission has blamed the Taliban for most of the fatalities. Of the figure, 4,393 were children and 2,801 were women.

“We call on both sides, the Taliban and the Afghan government, to announce ceasefire, respect the demand of the Afghan people and avoid further violence,” said Zabihullah Farhang, a spokesman to AIHRC.

The US Defense Department has also released figures on war casualties and has estimated the overall deaths among Americans, Afghan security forces, the Taliban, and other militant groups to 157,000 in the last 18 years.

“There are not too many people you walk around this building who doesn’t know somebody including me who did make a back home alive from Afghanistan,” the Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday.

The Pentagon documents show that an estimated 43,074 Afghan civilians, 64,124 Afghan security force members and 42,100 Taliban fighters have died so far. Also, 7,295 foreigners–among them 3,814 US contractors, 1,145 coalition forces’ members and 2,300 American soldiers–have lost lives from 2001 to 2019.

Figures by United Nations mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, show 41,622 civilians were killed and 59,665 more were wounded between 2007 to 2020.