Thirty women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, as the slaughter began. Among them were new mothers, while others were experiencing childbirth.
Present at the hospital after dark, 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. We who were able to escape, did so.”
This appalling incident stands as a particularly egregious examples in the protracted internal conflict tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants raided the hospital, allegedly slaughtering more than 460 innocent people inside.
Rights organizations have described it as “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a prime example of the vanishing safeguards for civilians caught in conflict zones in several nations at war.
An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation have signed the Geneva conventions, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are exceptionally vulnerable due to their dependence on locally available medical care.
Data analysis and investigations 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 are not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They constitute a deliberate strategy of violence against reproduction.”
The majority of these assaults have occurred in regions embroiled in intense conflict, where a vast number of pregnant women are trapped.
Women have been killed, blocked from reaching help, or made to have their babies in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been murdered, 15 kidnapped, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
The numbers are probably a substantial underreporting, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, information is scarce.
Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who lost their lives in maternal circumstances were in a conflict area. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, 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 one reason behind accusations of genocidal acts.
Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from a lack of proper treatment, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. UN officials have relayed women having children by the roadside because hospitals could not be reached.
“We’ve had rockets targeting the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states 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 hospitals for mothers and babies have been struck and ruined in Ukraine. Accounts from embattled medical centers describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues.
“The attacks on us are intentional,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“The truth of the matter is, every facility is now a potential target,” notes a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”
A Culture of Impunity
For the over half a billion females living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and a stark lack of legal accountability for those targeting maternity care.
This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” says a human rights lawyer. “Attacks on reproductive healthcare, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Other Conflict Zones
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 limited by a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma damaged a maternity hospital, resulting in tragic loss of life.
In Myanmar, clinics have been attacked 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 avoidable with standard medicine, but war destroys healthcare networks. Rights groups note that anxiety is forcing women away from facilities once considered safe, resulting in risky home births lacking professional help.
“If maternity hospitals are being deliberately targeted speaks to a larger and alarming strategy: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation and to tear apart the social fabric,” says a legal researcher.
“Safeguards are not guaranteed 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.”
