Thirty women were huddled for safety in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were in the midst of labor.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, leaving dead more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have labeled it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation have signed the international laws of war, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are particularly at risk due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations uncover an shocking trend: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women 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 constitute a systematic assault on childbirth.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are trapped.
Mothers have lost their lives, blocked from reaching help, or compelled to deliver in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 detained—sometimes during medical procedures.
The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns
The numbers are probably a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents documented publicly. In many areas of fighting, communications are sparse.
Last year, analysis showed that one in two mothers who died during pregnancy or childbirth resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to community survival.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind accusations of genocidal acts.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached.
“Our facility has endured missile strikes fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.
“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Officials from Russia have rejected 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 hundreds of millions of women living close to deadly warfare, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those attacking childbirth services.
This void of justice has fostered a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, 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 spiking dangerously, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, causing fatalities among patients and staff.
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
The majority of childbirth fatalities are preventable with routine care, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births without skilled assistance.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
