Quarterly Report | Afghanistan NGO Safety Office

The chart shows the number of countrywide attacks from armed opposition groups. The NGO safety network believes that the core of the insurgency is the struggle against the foreign presence. You can click on the chart to enlarge.

This quarterly report from the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office documents the escalating violence. Finding that civilian deaths have increased 106% since the US troop surge in June 2009.

The short report is packed with helpful charts and graphs. It includes a short summary statement with a section on NGO trends and one that looks at the state of the conflict.

Here are some of the more revealing figures.

“The number of armed opposition group initiated attacks has grown 42% over the second quarter of 2010 and 119% since the US military surge began in June 2009.”

“Throughout 2010 and for 2011 to date, the data shows no deviation from the established pattern (going back to 2006) of continuous growth starting in February and likely to peak in August/September this year.”

They have a term for this.

“We call this co-evolutionary dynamic the ‘perpetually escalating stalemate’ and it suggests that disengagement and de-escalation may stand a chance of achieving what staying and fighting never could – delegitimizing the insurgency, which at its heart is a struggle against the foreign presence, by removing its reason for being and compelling local settlement.”