A group of thirty mothers were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were experiencing childbirth.
Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants stormed the facility, reportedly killing more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have called it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the collapse in safety for civilians caught in conflict zones in several nations at war.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation have signed the international laws of war, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data show an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.
“These incidents do not represent standard wartime hazards. They represent a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are trapped.
Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or forced to give birth in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 kidnapped, and 101 detained—sometimes during medical procedures.
The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns
Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they are limited to incidents documented publicly. In many war-torn areas, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that half of all women who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are destroying maternal and neonatal care facilities, posing a long-term threat to societal repopulation and recovery.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the devastating effect on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached.
“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 rejected 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. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues.
“We are being singled out,” claims 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 can be under attack now,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the more than 676 million women living near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This lack of accountability has led to a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, may constitute acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”
Additional Hotspots
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 lack of access 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 been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war.
The Collapse of Safe Childbirth
Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.
“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” notes a legal researcher.
“There is no absolute protection 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 increasingly been used as a justification.”
