Dozens of women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth.
Present at the hospital after dark, 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. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”
This brutal attack stands as a particularly egregious examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the North African nation apart. Militiamen stormed the facility, leaving dead more than 460 innocent people inside.
Rights organizations have called it “a crime beyond words,” and a clear case of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.
An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services
While all major powers have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data uncover an shocking trend: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth 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 incidents have happened in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of pregnant women are trapped.
Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, 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 in the act of delivering babies.
The Global Crisis in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents reported in news outlets. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited.
Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability.
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 accusations of genocidal acts.
Following truces, 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 giving birth in rubble because hospitals were out of reach.
“Direct shelling hitting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains 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 maternity and neonatal facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.
“We are being singled out,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.
“The truth of the matter is, every facility faces the threat of assault,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are few safeguards and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those attacking childbirth services.
This void of justice has created a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area had been cut off from humanitarian aid long before the hospital attack, with malnutrition increasing drastically, 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 struck a baby care unit, 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 Collapse of Safe Childbirth
Most maternal deaths are averted with basic healthcare, 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 without skilled assistance.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a tool for terror and to break societal cohesion,” says a legal researcher.
“Hospitals are not completely safe 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.”
