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A group of thirty mothers were huddled for safety in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Among them were new mothers, while others were experiencing childbirth.

Present at the hospital after dark, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, managed to survive the ordeal. “The sounds of screaming reached me of women and children,” he explains. “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. Militiamen stormed the facility, reportedly killing more than 460 innocent people inside.

Rights organizations have called it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a stark illustration of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in multiple global hotspots.

A Record of Violence Against Maternal Care

Despite every significant nation have agreed to the Geneva conventions, which obligate them to protect civilians, the past year has seen a record number 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 show 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 bombardments of hospitals and delivery wards.

“These are not natural consequences of war. They form a pattern of reproductive violence.”

The majority of these assaults have occurred in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of women bearing children are confined.

Deaths have occurred, blocked from reaching help, or forced to give birth in perilous and unsafe environments. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been killed, 15 abducted, and 101 detained—sometimes during medical procedures.

The Global Crisis for Mothers and Newborns

Statistics are thought to be a grave undercount, as they capture solely incidents documented publicly. In many areas of fighting, information is scarce.

Last year, analysis showed that half of all women who perished while pregnant or giving birth resided in a war zone. This underscores a devastating pattern.

In addition to the loss of life, these attacks are destroying hospitals and wards, posing a long-term threat to community survival.

Conditions within Gaza

In Gaza, the catastrophic impact on reproductive health rights has been cited by a UN commission as a factor in genocide allegations.

Following truces, doctors report that women and children succumb from inadequate care, owing to desperate lacks of medicine and equipment. Accounts describe women delivering babies amidst ruins because hospitals were inaccessible.

“Direct shelling fired at 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 seeking to affect birthrates.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been attacked and rendered unusable in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births taking place in basements and skyrocketing stress leading to maternal health issues.

“The attacks on us are intentional,” asserts 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,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “If a drone is destroyed, the falling debris may hit a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the over half a billion females living within range of fighting, there are few safeguards and even fewer war crimes prosecutions for those targeting maternity care.

This void of justice has led to a “atmosphere of lawlessness,” explains a human rights lawyer. “Violence targeting childbirth, 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 restricted due to a inability to report from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, 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 Collapse of Safe Childbirth

A large proportion of mother 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, pushing them toward risky home births devoid of emergency care.

“When childbirth centers become intentional targets speaks to a broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear and to break societal cohesion,” notes a legal researcher.

“Safeguards are not guaranteed for hospitals in war. Under the Geneva conventions, medical facilities may forfeit their immunity if used for acts deemed ‘harmful to the enemy’, which has increasingly been used as a justification.”