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.
Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”
This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers stormed the facility, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a prime example of the deteriorating protection for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has seen a record number of assaults against medical infrastructure. Women undergoing childbirth are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.
“These are not standard wartime hazards. They represent a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”
The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of pregnant women are trapped.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.
The Global Crisis in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents reported in news outlets. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who perished while pregnant or giving birth were in a conflict area. This underscores a horrifying trend.
Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind genocide allegations.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children continue to die from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.
“Direct shelling targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.
“In fact, every facility faces the threat of assault,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are few safeguards and a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health.
This lack of accountability has led to a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by preventing births.”
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 hit a neonatal ward, 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
A large proportion of mother deaths are preventable with routine care, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births without skilled assistance.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates 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.
“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.”
