🔗 Share this article

A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were actively in labor.

On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he states. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”

This appalling incident stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Militiamen forced their way into the building, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 patients and their companions.

Rights organizations have described it as “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war.

An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services

Although world powers have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has seen a record number of violence targeting health services. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their need for locally available medical care.

An investigation of records 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 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.

“These are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They constitute a systematic assault on childbirth.”

The majority of these incidents have happened in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where hundreds of thousands of pregnant women are trapped.

Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or made to have their babies in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been killed, 15 abducted, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.

A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health

These figures likely represent a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.

Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who died during pregnancy or childbirth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a horrifying trend.

In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, posing a long-term threat to societal repopulation and recovery.

The Situation in Gaza

In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights 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 are still perishing from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached.

“We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or seeking to affect birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.

“We are being singled out,” asserts the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Officials from Russia have rejected deliberately targeting civilians.

“In fact, every facility is now a potential target,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “Even if air defence intercepts a drone, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living close to deadly warfare, there are scarce guarantees and rare trials for atrocities for those attacking childbirth services.

This lack of accountability has fostered a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially 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 rising sharply, 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, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.

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

A large proportion of mother deaths are avoidable with standard medicine, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births without skilled assistance.

“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a weapon to spread fear and to tear apart the social fabric,” says a legal researcher.

“Hospitals are not completely safe 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 now become a standard defence.”