Dozens of women were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were actively in labor.
Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “There were cries of women and children,” he explains. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”
This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 innocent people inside.
Rights organizations have called it “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case 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 signed the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of violence targeting health services. 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 natural consequences of war. 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 women bearing children are confined.
Mothers have lost their lives, prevented from accessing care, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been murdered, 15 abducted, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they are limited to incidents reported in news outlets. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend.
Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to community survival.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind declaring certain actions a genocide.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children continue to die from medical shortages, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.
“Direct shelling 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 seeking to affect birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” says 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 is now a potential target,” notes 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 a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health.
This void of justice has fostered a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”
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 restricted due to a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
A large proportion of mother deaths are averted with basic healthcare, 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 without skilled assistance.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward 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,” observes a legal researcher.
“There is no absolute protection for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘militarily advantageous’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
