🔗 Share this article

A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were actively in labor.

Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This brutal attack stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 innocent people inside.

Rights organizations have called it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a stark illustration of the collapse in safety for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in several nations at war.

A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of violence targeting health services. Mothers in labor are particularly at risk due to their dependence on locally available medical care.

An investigation of records uncover an shocking trend: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.

“These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”

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, blocked from reaching help, or forced to give birth in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.

The Global Crisis in Maternal Health

The numbers are probably a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents reported in news outlets. In many conflict zones, reporting is limited.

Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who died during pregnancy or childbirth resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality.

Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, jeopardizing the future to societal repopulation and recovery.

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.

Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children succumb from a lack of proper treatment, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were inaccessible.

“We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has contested deliberately targeting maternity care or aiming to influence birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.

“We are being singled out,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.

“In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living within range of fighting, there are scarce guarantees and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.

This void of justice has led to a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”

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 limited by a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, resulting in tragic loss of life.

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 End of Safe Deliveries

The majority of childbirth fatalities are preventable with routine care, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births lacking professional help.

“When childbirth centers become intentional targets speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to tear apart the social fabric,” notes a legal researcher.

“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has now become a standard defence.”