Thirty women were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. 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, became one of the few known survivors. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”
This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants forced their way into the building, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions.
Rights organizations have described it as “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a clear case of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.
An Unprecedented Assault 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 attacks on healthcare systems. Mothers in labor are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations reveal 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 form a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of pregnant women are trapped.
Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births.
The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns
Statistics are thought to be a grave undercount, as they are limited to incidents reported in news outlets. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited.
Last year, it was reported that 50% of women who died during pregnancy or childbirth were in a conflict area. This underscores a devastating pattern.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating hospitals and wards, posing a long-term threat to community survival.
The Situation in Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind declaring certain actions a genocide.
Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from a lack of proper treatment, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.
“We’ve had rockets fired at 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 trying to alter birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.
“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The reality is, every facility can be under attack now,” states a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the over half a billion females living close to deadly warfare, there are few safeguards and a stark lack of legal accountability for those targeting maternity care.
This void of justice has led to a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area was isolated from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is scarce because of a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.
In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. 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 wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear 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 ‘militarily advantageous’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
