🔗 Share this article

A group of thirty mothers were seeking shelter in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Among them were new mothers, while others were actively in labor.

Present at the hospital after dark, 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 explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”

This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the North African nation apart. Militiamen stormed the facility, reportedly killing more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.

Rights organizations have described it as “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.

A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care

Despite every significant nation 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. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care.

Research and compiled data reveal an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.

“These are not natural consequences of war. They constitute a systematic assault on childbirth.”

The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where countless of expectant mothers are stranded.

Deaths have occurred, blocked from reaching help, or forced to give birth in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been slain, 15 taken hostage, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.

A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns

The numbers are probably a grave undercount, as they capture solely incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.

Last year, analysis showed that 50% of women who perished while pregnant or giving birth were in a conflict area. This underscores a horrifying trend.

Beyond killing women and staff, these attacks are wrecking maternal and neonatal care facilities, posing a long-term threat to demographic stability.

The Situation in Gaza

In Gaza, the devastating effect on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for accusations of genocidal acts.

Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children continue to die from a lack of proper treatment, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were out of reach.

“Direct shelling 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 seeking to affect birthrates.

Ukraine's Ordeal

Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues.

“We are being singled out,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.

“The reality is, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living within range of fighting, there are scarce guarantees and a stark lack of legal accountability for those attacking childbirth services.

This absence of consequences has fostered a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially 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 rising sharply, especially among children and pregnant women.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is limited by 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 been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war.

The Collapse of Safe Childbirth

A large proportion of mother deaths are preventable with routine care, 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 devoid of emergency care.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to destroy community bonds,” notes a legal researcher.

“There is no absolute protection 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 now become a standard defence.”