GMO says the proportion of women and children killed in the conflict is about 70%.
The latest UN report, citing health ministry data, said that of the 24,686 fully identified deaths, 52% were women and children, 40% were men and 8% were “elderly”, without specifying whether they were men or women. .
It’s unclear what age the report considers “elderly” and how children are classified.
Our own analysis of detailed data released by the Ministry of Health also found that 52% of deaths were among women and children (people under 18 years old). In addition, 43% were male, and the other 5% were “unknown” (lacking information such as age or gender).
Almost all of the 10,000 deaths that were not fully identified by the Ministry of Health were women and children, in order to reconcile the GMO figures with those of the Ministry of Health.
“It’s not logically impossible … but it does affect credibility,” said Professor Michael Spagat, who specializes in death tolls in conflicts around the world.
We asked the GMO group why they recorded a much higher proportion of women and children killed than the Ministry of Health figures, but they did not respond directly to the discrepancy.
We have also contacted the Department of Health for comment.
