A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge 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.
Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This brutal attack stands as among the worst examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have labeled it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.
An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation are signatories to the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of violence targeting health services. Expectant mothers are particularly at risk due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations show an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.
“This is not standard wartime hazards. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”
The majority of these incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of women bearing children are confined.
Women have been killed, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 kidnapped, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes during medical procedures.
The Global Crisis in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents covered by the media. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.
Last year, it was reported that half of all women who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to community survival.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in declaring certain actions a genocide.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.
“We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.
“We are being singled out,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The truth of the matter is, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the more than 676 million women living near active conflicts, there are scarce guarantees and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those assaulting reproductive health.
This absence of consequences has fostered a “culture of impunity,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area lacked access to 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 inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked 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
A large proportion of mother deaths are preventable with routine care, but war shatters health systems. 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 speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to tear apart the social fabric,” notes a legal researcher.
“There is no absolute protection for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
