Kabul (AFP) – Most civilian victims of the conflict in Afghanistan (2001-2021) are abandoned “without justice, reparations or recognition” of their suffering, the UN deplored Tuesday in a vast investigation. “The world has forgotten us,” one of them confides to the AFP team in Kabul.

Published on: 01/09/2026 - 10:07

Nearly 25 years ago, the United States intervened in Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks in New York. What followed was 20 years of conflict marked by abuses against the population.

More than 40,000 civilians were killed and 77,000 injured in attacks by Taliban insurgents, the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, but also during operations by the armed forces of the Afghan Republic or the international coalition led by the United States, said the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), which has been recording civilian victims since 2009.

Tapa-e-Shuhada Hill in Kabul bears witness to part of the tragedy. The graves of people killed, mainly from the Hazara community regularly targeted by Taliban or ISIS attacks in the past, cover one of its sides.

Suhaila, 21, round glasses, was mowed down at Kabul University, Muhammad Hadi, 17, in an attack claimed by ISIS against a school preparing for university entrance exams, on October 24, 2020.

Mohammad, 25, was injured in the attack. He kept his last name because the “fear is still there”. Coming from a modest family, he wanted to become a computer engineer to “change his life”.

Today he works intermittently as a tailor: "I lost my concentration. I couldn't continue my studies because of psychological problems (...). The world has forgotten us."

In their white-walled living room, his mother sighs: "He always has nightmares at night, and I'm getting weaker day by day."

Memory loss, depression, suicidal thoughts: 95% of the nearly 200 victims interviewed by Unama reported psychological consequences.

“No one listened to us”

In Logar province, south of Kabul, Khan Yousufi, a 46-year-old farmer, recounts how his eight-year-old son was playing outside the house when an Afghan Republic Police tank fired, killing him instantly.

“My wife rushed towards her child, they shot her too,” seriously injuring her, he adds. Tears roll down her cheeks.

He filed a complaint with the police, with the governor, with the Directorate of Security at the time of the Republic. “We tried so hard, we ran so hard (...) but no one listened to us.” It was no more successful after the Taliban authorities came to power.

“If the person who did this had been brought to justice, it would prevent someone else from inflicting the same pain on others (...) because people would know that there is justice,” said this man who does not want revenge but to avoid the repetition of crimes.

The majority of victims who tried to obtain justice "failed", according to Unama.

During the Republic, "lords" from past wars were present in the government. An action plan for “Peace, Reconciliation and Justice” has “never been fully implemented”, recalls Unama.

When the United States signed an agreement with Taliban leaders in 2020, it did not include any provision “on victims’ rights or justice,” she continues.

- “Limited efforts” -

Having come to power, the latter, regularly criticized for their non-respect of human rights, passed an amnesty law and have never publicly indicated that they wanted to judge violations of humanitarian law during the war, writes Unama.

“Efforts domestically and internationally to hold those who committed these acts accountable have been limited,” she concludes.

This year, a former Australian special forces officer was indicted for war crimes in Afghanistan, but the trial seems far away.

A Dutch court ordered the Netherlands in 2022 to compensate the relatives of victims of a deadly aerial bombardment deemed illegal in 2007 in Afghanistan.

An independent investigation in Britain opened in 2022 into accusations of extrajudicial executions is still underway, but no prosecutions in the United States, according to the report.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) had opened an investigation into the abuses in Afghanistan, but the prosecutor restricted it to the crimes accused of Taliban members and ISIS, citing "their seriousness and their continuation", but also "limited resources".

“What makes the victims of the Taliban and ISIS more worthy of obtaining justice than those of international and American forces?” asks Refik Hodzic, transitional justice advisor for the European Institute of Peace.

In the absence of justice, Khan Yousufi would like help so that his wife can be better cared for. Mohammad dreams of a scholarship and support for ex-students like him: “So that we can regain our hopes”.

© 2026 AFP

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