Nearly 6,000 Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in the first nine months of the year as heavy fighting between government forces and Taliban insurgents rages on despite efforts to find peace, the United Nations said Tuesday.

From January to September, there were 5,939 civilian casualties in the fighting - 2,117 people killed and 3,822 wounded, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a report.

"High levels of violence continue with a devastating impact on civilians, with Afghanistan remaining among the deadliest places in the world to be a civilian," the mission said in a quarterly report.

Civilian casualties were 30% lower than in the same period last year but UNAMA said violence has failed to slow since the beginning of talks between government negotiators and the Taliban that began in the Qatari capital of Doha last month.