A group of thirty mothers were seeking shelter 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, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, reportedly killing more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.
A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services
While all major powers have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of assaults against medical infrastructure. Expectant mothers are particularly at risk due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data show 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 standard wartime hazards. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are trapped.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been killed, 15 taken hostage, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.
The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns
These figures likely represent a significant underestimate, as they are limited to incidents covered by the media. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.
Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances were in a conflict area. This underscores a horrifying trend.
In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, creating a grave danger to societal repopulation and recovery.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the ruinous consequences on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind accusations of genocidal acts.
Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from a lack of proper treatment, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.
“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 contested deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates.
Ukraine's Ordeal
Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births occurring in shelters 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 faces the threat of assault,” states a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris can strike a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This lack of accountability has fostered a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, may constitute 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 increasing drastically, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, causing fatalities among patients and staff.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire 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 avoidable with standard medicine, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” observes 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
