Photo taken on Sept. 17, 2019 shows the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Rahmatullah Alizadah)
Armed conflict in cities kills and gravely wounds countless civilians, leaving many with life-long disabilities and psychological trauma.
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on Wednesday jointly appealed for an end to the use of explosive weapons in cities.
"Alarmed at the devastating humanitarian consequences of urban warfare, the ICRC and the United Nations today are jointly appealing to states and all parties to armed conflict to avoid the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area in populated areas," said Guterres' press office in a "note to correspondents."
As the world urbanizes, so does armed conflict. When cities are bombed and shelled -- whether by airstrikes, rockets, artillery or improvised explosive devices -- civilians overwhelmingly bear the brunt, said the note.
Parties to conflict should recognize that they cannot fight in populated areas in the way they would in open battlefields. They must recognize that using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in cities, towns, and refugee camps places civilians at high risk of indiscriminate harm, it said.
Armed conflict in cities kills and gravely wounds countless civilians, leaving many with life-long disabilities and psychological trauma. Infrastructure necessary for the functioning of basic services -- water, electricity, sanitation, health care -- is damaged or destroyed. This triggers domino effects that exacerbate suffering, the note said.
The massive destruction caused by armed conflicts in cities can set development indexes back by years and even decades. For example, after the first four years of the armed conflict in Yemen, human development indicators dropped to their index of 20 years ago, according to the note.
People carry a coffin of a victim of the Sunday's explosion during a funeral at a cemetery in Sanaa, Yemen, April 10, 2019. Sunday's explosion in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa had killed 14 children and critically injured 16 others, most of them aged under nine, a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson said on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)
"Progress gained over decades can be quickly reversed as once lively and prospering population centers turn into ghost towns," it said.
The joint appeal was launched as this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, universally accepted treaties that provide the protective power of international humanitarian law.
