Story highlights Casualties caused by dud ordnance left behind on battlefield

Civilian casualties for single year at more than 11,000

(CNN) The number of child casualties in the long-running Afghan war jumped last year, spiking 24% from 2015 in large part from leftover munitions, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a report on Monday.

"Children have been killed, blinded, crippled -- or inadvertently caused the death of their friends -- while playing with unexploded ordnance that is negligently left behind by parties to the conflict," said Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report also cited a 3% increase in total conflict-related civilian casualties in 2016 compared to the previous year -- the highest number since the the United Nations started documenting the deaths and injuries in the conflict in 2009. That number stands at 11,418 deaths and injuries in 2016.

But the jump in child deaths and injuries is a particularly striking and disturbing trend in the mission's annual report entitled "Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict."

Of the 11,418 casualties in 2016, 3,512 were children: 923 who died and 2,589 who were injured. These are records since UNAMA began documenting such figures eight years ago.

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