In that incident on Saturday, at least 80 people were killed and more than 200 were injured.
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Those casualties – claimed by the self-styled “Islamic State” – were not part of the UN’s latest tally.
The shocking figures come just days after one of the deadliest attacks ever in Kabul.
On Saturday, at least 80 people were killed and 231 wounded in a suicide attack on a peaceful demonstration of the Afghan minority Shiite Hazara community. The conflict against the Taliban, now in its 15th year, has cost the USA more than $700 billion and killed more than 2,300 American soldiers, with the increasingly bloody fighting forcing President Barack Obama this month to slow troop withdrawal plans.
“There must be an end to the prevailing impunity enjoyed by those responsible for civilian casualties – no matter who they are”.
But Afghan forces were responsible for 22 percent of casualties overall, and the global troops remaining in the country caused 2 percent, while 17 percent of deaths could not be attributed to any specific side.
Ahmad Shuja, Afghanistan researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, attributed the alarming rise in the number of deaths and injuries to children to a changing landscape of war.
UNAMA called on the Afghan government to stop using mortars, rockets, grenades, other indirect weapons, and aerial attacks in civilian-populated areas – and to develop and implement clear tactical directives, rules of engagement and other procedures for use of explosive weapons and armed aircraft.
Most civilians were caught up in ground clashes between the two sides as the Taliban increasingly threatened population centres and government troops went on the offensive following the withdrawal of most global combat troops in 2014.
While 2015 saw the highest number of civilian casualties since 2009, when UNAMA started collating civilian casualties, numbers for this half-year were similar to previous year.
This represents an increase of 4 percent in the total number of casualties compared to the same period past year, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said.
Significantly, the United Nations in its report also asked the global military forces, that includes the U.S., to undertake an independent, impartial, transparent and effective investigation of the October 2015 airstrike on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz and make the findings public.
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While anti-government forces remain responsible for 60 percent of the civilian casualties, there has been a 47 percent increase in casualties resulting from pro-government military actions – they were overall responsible for 23 percent of the casualties this year primarily from ground engagements. Of that total, the number of injured rose by 6 percent, to 3,565, and the number killed fell by 1 percent, to 1,601.
