Dozens of women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth.
Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This appalling incident stands as among the worst examples in the two-year civil war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have called it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the vanishing safeguards for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of violence targeting health services. Mothers in labor are highly exposed due to their need for locally available medical care.
An investigation of records reveal an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.
“These incidents do not represent inevitable outcomes of conflict. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of expectant mothers are stranded.
Deaths have occurred, prevented from accessing care, or compelled to deliver in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births.
The Global Crisis in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents covered by the media. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, it was reported that one in two mothers who perished while pregnant or giving birth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a horrifying trend.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in accusations of genocidal acts.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were out of reach.
“We’ve had rockets fired at 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 seeking to affect birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.
“The truth of the matter is, every facility can be under attack now,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute acts of genocide by preventing births.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area had been cut off from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition increasing drastically, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is scarce because of a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” says 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
