A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Among them were new mothers, while others were in the midst of labor.
On duty during that fateful night, a 28-year-old lab technician, Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This horrifying event stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Armed soldiers stormed the facility, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have labeled it “a crime beyond words,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians trapped in war-torn areas in several nations at war.
An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation 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. Mothers in labor are particularly at risk due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data uncover an shocking trend: nearly 300 attacks on and disruptions to places and people associated with childbirth over the last three years, including at least 119 targeted attacks against hospitals and delivery wards.
“These are not natural consequences of war. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.”
The majority of these attacks have taken place in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where countless of women bearing children are confined.
Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or compelled to deliver in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been murdered, 15 taken hostage, and 101 taken into custody—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 covered by the media. In many conflict zones, communications are sparse.
Last year, findings indicated that one in two mothers who died during pregnancy or childbirth resided in a war zone. This underscores a catastrophic reality.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, 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 declaring certain actions a genocide.
Despite periods of calm, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits 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 contested deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.
The Crisis in Ukraine
Since early 2022, at least 80 hospitals for mothers and babies have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to problems during delivery.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” says the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The reality is, every facility can be under attack now,” states a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the over half a billion females living close to deadly warfare, there are minimal protections and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care.
This absence of consequences has created a “environment where anything goes,” says a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, can be understood as 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 increasing drastically, especially among children and pregnant women.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, information is restricted due to a communication blackout from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, hospitals have come under fire 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
A large proportion of mother deaths are averted with basic healthcare, but war shatters health systems. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births devoid of emergency care.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards points toward a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to break societal cohesion,” observes 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 ‘militarily advantageous’, which has now become a standard defence.”
