A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were experiencing childbirth.
Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he recounts. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This horrifying event stands as a particularly egregious 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 called it “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case of the vanishing safeguards for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
Although world powers have signed the international laws of war, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are particularly at risk due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations reveal an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.
“These are not natural consequences of war. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these incidents have happened in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of pregnant women are trapped.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes while assisting births.
A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances were in a conflict area. This underscores a horrifying trend.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are destroying critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.
“We’ve had rockets targeting 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 trying to alter birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to birth complications.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” asserts 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,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the over half a billion females living near active conflicts, there are scarce guarantees and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has fostered a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by preventing births.”
Additional Hotspots
In El Fasher, the area was isolated 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 scarce because of a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked and dozens of midwives and patients have faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births lacking professional help.
“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a means of intimidation and to break societal cohesion,” says a legal researcher.
“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
