Thirty women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Among them were new mothers, while others were in the midst of labor.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”
This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen stormed the facility, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have called it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care
Although world powers have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Expectant mothers are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.
An investigation of records reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.
“These incidents do not represent standard wartime hazards. They form a systematic assault on childbirth.”
The majority of these incidents have happened in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of women bearing children are confined.
Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or forced to give birth in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been killed, 15 kidnapped, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes during medical procedures.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they are limited to incidents reported in news outlets. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.
Last year, it was reported that one in two mothers who died during pregnancy or childbirth resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are destroying maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in declaring certain actions a genocide.
Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.
“We’ve had rockets hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.
“We are being singled out,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.
“In fact, every facility can be under attack now,” states a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and a stark lack of legal accountability for those targeting maternity care.
This lack of accountability has led to a “culture of impunity,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Additional Hotspots
In El Fasher, the area had been cut off from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is limited by a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a larger and alarming strategy: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to break societal cohesion,” notes a legal researcher.
“Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
