A group of thirty mothers were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “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 protracted internal conflict tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants forced their way into the building, leaving dead more than 460 innocent people inside.
Rights organizations have called it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a clear case of the collapse in safety for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care
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. Mothers in labor are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data reveal an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 violent acts against maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.
“These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped.
Deaths have occurred, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been killed, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births.
A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns
These figures likely represent a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents documented publicly. In many areas of fighting, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who lost their lives in maternal circumstances lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a catastrophic reality.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, posing a long-term threat to community survival.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind genocide allegations.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals could not be reached.
“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 damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births taking place in basements and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.
“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The truth of the matter is, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the over half a billion females living within range of fighting, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has created a “environment where anything goes,” says a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”
Other Conflict Zones
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, causing fatalities among patients and staff.
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 Collapse of Safe Childbirth
The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births lacking professional help.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” observes 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 ‘militarily advantageous’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”
