civilian casualty numbers rose. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported some 25,000 Afghans internally displaced during one week from Kunduz to the capital, Kabul, and neighbouring countries. ARMED CONFLICT In the first nine months of 2016, UNAMA documented 8,397 conflict-related civilian casualties (2,562 deaths and 5,835 injured). Pro-government forces – including Afghan national security forces, the Afghan local police, pro-government armed groups, and international military forces – were responsible for almost 23%, according to UNAMA. UNAMA documented at least 15 incidents in the first half of 2016 in which progovernment forces conducted search operations in hospitals and clinics, delayed or impeded the provision of medical supplies, or used health facilities for military purposes. This was a sharp increase on the previous year. Men dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms entered a health clinic in the Taliban-controlled village of Tangi Saidan, Wardak province, on 18 February. The Swedish aid group that ran the clinic said the men beat staff members and killed two patients and a 15-year-old carer. NATO launched an investigation into the incident; no updates were made public by the end of the year. No criminal charges were brought against those responsible for an air strike by US forces in October 2015 against a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz which killed and injured at least 42 staff and patients, although approximately 12 US military personnel faced disciplinary sanctions. In March, the new commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan issued an apology to the families of the victims. ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS The Taliban and other armed insurgent groups were responsible for the majority of Amnesty International Report 2016/17 civilian casualties, approximately 60%, according to UNAMA. On 3 February, the Taliban shot dead a 10year-old boy on his way to school in Tirin Kot, southern Uruzgan. It was believed that the boy was shot because he had fought the Taliban on earlier occasions alongside his uncle, a former Taliban commander who switched allegiance and became a local police commander. On 19 April, Taliban militants attacked a security team responsible for protecting highlevel government officials in Kabul, killing at least 64 people and wounding 347. It was the biggest Taliban attack on an urban area since 2001. On 31 May, Taliban militants posing as government officials kidnapped around 220 civilians at a fake checkpoint along the Kunduz-Takhar highway near Arzaq Angor Bagh in Kunduz province. They killed 17 of the civilians and the rest were eventually rescued or released. At least 40 more people were kidnapped and others killed in the same area on 8 June. On 23 July, a suicide attack claimed by the armed group Islamic State (IS) killed at least 80 people and wounded more than 230 during a peaceful demonstration by members of the Hazara minority in Kabul. In August, three armed men attacked the American University in Kabul, killing 12 people and injuring nearly 40, mostly students and teachers. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. On 11 October, IS conducted a coordinated attack against a large group of mourners in a Shi’a mosque in Kabul. The attackers used explosive materials and stormed the mosque, reportedly taking hostage hundreds of mourners. At least 18 people were shot dead and over 40 injured, including women and children. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS The Afghan judiciary said that it had registered more than 3,700 cases of violence against women and girls in the first eight months of 2016. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission also 59