Thirty women were huddled for safety in a maternity hospital 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, lived to tell the tale. “There were cries of women and children,” he explains. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers raided the hospital, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions.
Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the collapse in safety for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in multiple global hotspots.
An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation have agreed to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of violence targeting health services. Women undergoing childbirth are highly exposed due to their need for locally available medical care.
An investigation of records reveal an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.
“This is not standard wartime hazards. They represent a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”
The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where countless of expectant mothers are stranded.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or forced to give birth in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 taken hostage, and 101 detained—sometimes during medical procedures.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
These figures likely represent a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a horrifying trend.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking hospitals and wards, posing a long-term threat to community survival.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in declaring certain actions a genocide.
Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women having children by the roadside because hospitals were out of reach.
“Our facility has endured missile strikes targeting 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 seeking to affect birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.
“We are being singled out,” claims 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,” states a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the hundreds of millions of women living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has created a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as acts of genocide by preventing births.”
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 limited by a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, leading them to risky home births without skilled assistance.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” says a legal researcher.
“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has now become a standard defence.”
