The United Nations’ rights chief said on Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed — nearly half of them children — since hostilities with neighbouring Pakistan escalated last week.
“I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict and to prioritise helping those experiencing extreme hardship,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
The two neighbours have clashed along the frontier since 26 February, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has responded with further strikes along the border, bombing multiple sites, including the former US air base at the capital Kabul of Kandahar, Kabul.
Pakistan maintains that it has not caused any civilian deaths. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
The UN refugee agency reported on Thursday that around 115,000 Afghans and 3,000 people in Pakistan had been displaced by the fighting over the past week.
“Civilians on both sides of the border are now having to flee from air strikes, heavy artillery fire, mortar shelling, and gunfire,” Turk said.
He lamented that a new wave of violence was affecting people “whose lives have been tormented by violence and misery for so long".
Turk noted that over two million Afghans had returned to Afghanistan since Pakistan began implementing its “Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan” in September 2023.
Nearly as many are believed to remain in Pakistan, “where many face hardship and constant fear of arrest and deportation", he said.
“As a result of the violence, humanitarian assistance is unable to reach many of those desperately in need. This is piling misery on misery,” the rights chief said.
He called on “the Pakistani military and Afghan de facto security forces to immediately end their fighting and to prioritise helping the millions who depend on aid.”
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