Dozens of women had taken refuge in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Some had just delivered their newborns, while others were actively in labor.
Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. Survival meant running for your life.”
This horrifying event stands as a particularly egregious examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Militiamen stormed the facility, leaving dead more than 460 innocent people inside.
Rights organizations have labeled it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the vanishing safeguards for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in several nations at war.
An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services
Despite every significant nation are signatories to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of violence targeting health services. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their need for locally available medical care.
An investigation of records uncover an alarming level of violence: nearly 300 violent acts against maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.
“These incidents do not represent 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 women bearing children are confined.
Women have been killed, prevented from accessing care, or compelled to deliver in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been killed, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes during medical procedures.
A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns
These figures likely represent a significant underestimate, as they only include incidents documented publicly. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, it was reported that 50% of women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are wrecking critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, posing a long-term threat 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 genocide allegations.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to critical shortages of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women giving birth in rubble because hospitals were inaccessible.
“We’ve had rockets fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground 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. Officials from Russia have rejected deliberately targeting civilians.
“The reality 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.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the over half a billion females living near active conflicts, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has led to a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, can be understood as acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Additional Hotspots
In El Fasher, the area had been cut off 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 struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence over the past two years of civil war.
The Collapse of Safe Childbirth
A large proportion of mother deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, pushing them toward risky home births lacking professional help.
“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror and to tear apart the social fabric,” observes 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 ‘militarily advantageous’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”
