A group of thirty mothers were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Among them were new mothers, while others were experiencing childbirth.
On duty during that fateful 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 explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”
This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants 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 deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
Although world powers have agreed to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of assaults against medical infrastructure. Women undergoing childbirth are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations uncover an alarming level of violence: 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.
“These incidents do not represent standard wartime hazards. They represent a systematic assault on childbirth.”
The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of expectant mothers are stranded.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.
The Global Crisis in Maternal Health
The numbers are probably a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents covered by the media. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are destroying maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to community survival.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in genocide allegations.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children continue to die from a lack of proper treatment, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals could not be reached.
“We’ve had rockets hitting 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 aiming to influence birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births occurring in shelters and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Officials from Russia have rejected deliberately targeting civilians.
“The reality is, every facility is now a potential target,” states 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 close to deadly warfare, there are few safeguards and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as 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 spiking dangerously, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, causing fatalities among patients and staff.
In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are preventable with routine care, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births lacking professional help.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to break societal cohesion,” says a legal researcher.
“Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has now become a standard defence.”
