🔗 Share this article

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

Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, lived to tell the tale. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he recounts. “A massacre was taking place inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”

This horrifying event stands as a particularly egregious examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the African nation apart. Armed soldiers forced their way into the building, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 innocent people inside.

Rights organizations have described it as “a crime beyond words,” and a prime example of the collapse in safety for civilians caught in conflict zones in multiple global hotspots.

An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care

Despite every significant nation have signed the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has seen a record number of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their reliance on locally available medical care.

Research and compiled data show an shocking trend: nearly 300 incidents targeting or hindering maternity care facilities, staff, and pregnant women over the last three years, including at least 119 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.

“This is not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They form a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”

The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where a vast number of expectant mothers are stranded.

Deaths have occurred, prevented from accessing care, or forced to give birth in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been slain, 15 abducted, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes while assisting births.

A Worldwide Emergency for Mothers and Newborns

Statistics are thought to be a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many war-torn areas, reporting is limited.

Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who died during pregnancy or childbirth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a devastating pattern.

In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are obliterating hospitals and wards, jeopardizing the future 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.

Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children are still perishing from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached.

“Our facility has endured missile strikes fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” says the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has denied deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.

Ukraine's Ordeal

Since early 2022, at least 80 maternity and neonatal facilities have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Journalism from conflict zones describe births occurring in shelters and extreme psychological pressure leading to birth complications.

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

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

Accountability Evaporates

For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are few safeguards and a stark lack of legal accountability for those targeting maternity care.

This absence of consequences has created a “culture of impunity,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, 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 increasing drastically, 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 hit a neonatal ward, causing fatalities among patients and staff.

In Myanmar, medical facilities have been bombed and dozens of midwives and patients have suffered violence 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, resulting in risky home births devoid of emergency care.

“When childbirth centers become intentional targets speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of attacks on medical facilities as a tool for terror and to destroy community bonds,” notes a legal researcher.

“Hospitals are not completely safe for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities can lose their protected status if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has now become a standard defence.”