A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were actively in labor.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “There were cries of women and children,” he recounts. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”
This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers forced their way into the building, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions.
Rights organizations have described it as “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a prime example of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war.
A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation have agreed to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of attacks on healthcare systems. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data reveal an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering 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 inevitable outcomes of conflict. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers are stranded.
Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or compelled to deliver in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 detained—sometimes while assisting births.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, it was reported that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a catastrophic reality.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to societal repopulation and recovery.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for declaring certain actions a genocide.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children continue to die from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside because hospitals could not be reached.
“Direct shelling fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states 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 struck and ruined in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and skyrocketing stress leading to birth complications.
“We are being singled out,” says 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 can be under attack now,” states a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the more than 676 million women living close to deadly warfare, there are minimal protections and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has led to a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Additional Hotspots
In El Fasher, the area was isolated 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, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have faced detention, death, or harm over the past two years of civil war.
The End of Safe Deliveries
Most maternal deaths are preventable with routine care, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that fear is now driving women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births without skilled assistance.
“When childbirth centers become intentional targets points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes a legal researcher.
“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities are not inviolable if used for acts deemed ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
