🔗 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 experiencing childbirth.

Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he recounts. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”

This horrifying event stands as among the worst examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, leaving dead more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.

Rights organizations have labeled it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.

A Record of Violence On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have signed the international laws of war, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has seen a record number of attacks on healthcare systems. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their reliance on locally available medical care.

Data analysis and investigations uncover an unprecedented scale of attacks: nearly 300 violent acts against places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.

“These incidents do not represent natural consequences of war. They represent a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”

The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers are stranded.

Deaths have occurred, prevented from accessing care, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 childbirth professionals and specialists have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.

The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns

Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents reported in news outlets. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.

Last year, analysis showed that one in two mothers who died during pregnancy or childbirth were in a conflict area. This underscores a catastrophic reality.

In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, creating a grave danger to societal repopulation and recovery.

Conditions within Gaza

In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on the right to maternal care has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in accusations of genocidal acts.

Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were out of reach.

“We’ve had rockets hitting 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 aiming to influence birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.

“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Officials from Russia have rejected deliberately targeting civilians.

“The truth of the matter is, every facility can be under attack now,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

A Culture of Impunity

For the hundreds of millions of women living near active conflicts, there are scarce guarantees and even fewer war crimes prosecutions 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, may constitute acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”

Other Conflict Zones

In El Fasher, the area had been cut off 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 restricted due to a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, causing fatalities among patients and staff.

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 End of Safe Deliveries

Most maternal deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards indicates a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to tear apart the social fabric,” notes a legal researcher.

“There is no absolute protection for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”