Richard Norton-Taylor - Number of civilians killed or injured by explosives rises 50% in five years

By Dilip -
More than 33,000 civilians were killed or injured by explosive weapons in 2015, an increase of more than 50% in five years, according to a wide-ranging survey passed to the Guardian. In the last year alone, the number of civilian deaths caused by such weapons increased by as much as 7,682% in Turkey, and 1,204% in Yemen. 

There were also significant increases in Egypt (142%), Libya (85%), Syria (39%) and Nigeria(22%). The number of civilians killed or injured by suicide attacks also rose sharply, reaching 9,205 last year, an increase of 68% on 2014, even though the number of individual attacks – 253 – was about the same. More than half of the 16,180 civilians killed or injured by all improvised explosive devices (IEDs), including car bombs, were victims of suicide attacks.

Suicide bomb attacks occurred in 21 countries, the highest figure ever recorded. They were: Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, Chad, Cameroon, Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait, France – which suffered its first such attack in modern times – Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Libya, Egypt, China, India, Bangladesh, Mali and Tunisia.


Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/apr/27/civilians-killed-injured-explosives-rises-turkey-yemen

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