A group of thirty mothers had taken refuge in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, when the massacre started. Several had recently given birth, while others were experiencing childbirth.
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 explains. “They executed everybody inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”
This appalling incident stands as among the worst examples in the ongoing war tearing the North African nation apart. Combatants forced their way into the building, reportedly killing more than 460 individuals receiving care and their families.
Rights organizations have called it “an unspeakable atrocity,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.
An Unprecedented Assault Against Maternal Care
Despite every significant nation have signed the international laws of war, which commit them to defending civilians, the past year has witnessed an unprecedented spike of assaults against medical infrastructure. Mothers in labor are particularly at risk due to their reliance on locally available medical care.
Research and compiled data reveal an shocking trend: 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 incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where countless of pregnant women are trapped.
Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or compelled to deliver in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists have been slain, 15 taken hostage, and 101 taken into custody—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.
A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health
The numbers are probably a grave undercount, as they capture solely incidents covered by the media. In many areas of fighting, information is scarce.
Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who perished while pregnant or giving birth lived amidst hostilities. This underscores a devastating pattern.
Apart from fatalities, these attacks are obliterating maternal and neonatal care facilities, jeopardizing the future to demographic stability.
Conditions within Gaza
In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as part of the basis for genocide allegations.
Following truces, doctors report that women and children continue to die from inadequate care, owing to severe deficits of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women giving birth in rubble because hospitals could not be reached.
“Direct shelling fired at the wards, operating rooms, and maternity wards,” states 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 maternal health issues.
“Russia is targeting us deliberately,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.
“In fact, every facility faces the threat of assault,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”
Accountability Evaporates
For the hundreds of millions of women living within range of fighting, there are few safeguards and rare trials for atrocities for those assaulting reproductive health.
This void of justice has created a “culture of impunity,” says a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like forced pregnancy or forced sterilisation, may constitute acts of genocide by hindering reproduction.”
Other Conflict Zones
In El Fasher, the area was isolated 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 struck a baby care unit, resulting in tragic loss of life.
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 Collapse of Safe Childbirth
A large proportion of mother deaths 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 devoid of emergency care.
“The deliberate attack on maternity wards speaks to a wider and more disturbing trend: the use of violence against hospitals as a means of intimidation 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 ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has often been cited as an excuse.”