🔗 Share this article

Dozens of women 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, lived to tell the tale. “I heard the screams of women and children,” he states. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the two-year civil war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, leaving dead more than 460 patients and their companions.

Rights organizations have described it as “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a clear case of the collapse in safety for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.

An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services

While all major powers have agreed to the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has seen a record number of assaults against medical infrastructure. Expectant mothers are highly exposed due to their dependence on locally available medical care.

Research and compiled data 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.

“This is not natural consequences of war. They constitute a pattern of reproductive violence.”

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

Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been slain, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes while assisting births.

A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns

Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they only include incidents reported in news outlets. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.

Last year, it was reported that one in two mothers who lost their lives in maternal circumstances resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality.

Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, creating a grave danger to demographic stability.

The Situation in Gaza

In Gaza, the devastating effect on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as one reason behind accusations of genocidal acts.

Following truces, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Agencies have reported women having children by the roadside 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 trying to alter birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to problems during delivery.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. Russian authorities have denied deliberately targeting civilians.

“In fact, every facility faces the threat of assault,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

A Culture of Impunity

For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are scarce guarantees and a stark lack of legal accountability for those assaulting reproductive health.

This void of justice has led to a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”

Additional Hotspots

In El Fasher, the area lacked access to 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 limited by a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, resulting in tragic loss of life.

In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have been arrested, killed, or injured over the past two years of civil war.

The End of Safe Deliveries

The majority of childbirth fatalities are averted with basic healthcare, but war collapses medical infrastructure. Rights groups note that terror is compelling women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births lacking professional help.

“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted indicates a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a tool for terror 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 ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”