Thirty women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Several had recently given birth, while others were actively in labor.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This brutal attack stands as among the worst examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen forced their way into the building, reportedly killing more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in several nations at war.
An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of assaults against medical infrastructure. Expectant mothers are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.
“These are not standard wartime hazards. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of expectant mothers are stranded.
Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or forced to give birth in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many war-torn areas, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who died during pregnancy or childbirth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.
“Our facility has endured missile strikes targeting 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 childbirth centers have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.
“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The reality is, every facility faces the threat of assault,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are few safeguards and a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health.
This absence of consequences has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area was isolated 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 restricted due to a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire 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 averted with basic healthcare, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births lacking professional help.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes 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.”
