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Thirty women were seeking shelter in a childbirth facility in El Fasher, Sudan, at the onset of the horrific violence. Several had recently given birth, while others were in the midst of labor.

Working that night, a 28-year-old lab technician, a technician named Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, became one of the few known survivors. “There were cries of women and children,” he states. “They were killing everyone inside the hospital. Those who could run, fled.”

This appalling incident stands as one of the most shocking examples in the ongoing war tearing the African nation apart. Combatants stormed the facility, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions.

Rights organizations have labeled it “an act of unspeakable brutality,” and a clear case of the deteriorating protection for civilians living amidst warfare in several nations at war.

An Unprecedented Assault On Childbirth Services

Despite every significant nation are signatories to the Geneva conventions, which require them to safeguard civilians, the past year has experienced a historic high of assaults against medical infrastructure. Expectant mothers are exceptionally vulnerable due to their reliance on locally available medical care.

Data analysis and investigations uncover an shocking trend: 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.

“This is not inevitable outcomes of conflict. They represent a pattern of reproductive violence.”

The majority of these incidents have happened in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, where hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers are stranded.

Mothers have lost their lives, denied medical attention, or forced to give birth in deplorable situations. The data also indicates that at least 68 maternal health workers have been killed, 15 abducted, and 101 arrested—sometimes in the act of delivering babies.

A Worldwide Emergency in Maternal Health

Statistics are thought to be a significant underestimate, as they capture solely incidents reported in news outlets. In many areas of fighting, reporting is limited.

Last year, findings indicated that 50% of women who perished while pregnant or giving birth were in a conflict area. This underscores a horrifying trend.

Apart from fatalities, these attacks are destroying critical infrastructure for mothers and babies, jeopardizing the future to community survival.

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 accusations of genocidal acts.

Even after ceasefires, doctors report that women and children succumb from medical shortages, owing to critical shortages 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,” explains the head of a major hospital’s gynecology department. A military spokesperson has rejected deliberately targeting maternity care or trying to alter birthrates.

Ukraine's Ordeal

Since early 2022, at least 80 childbirth centers have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine. Reports from frontline hospitals describe births forced underground and extreme psychological pressure leading to maternal health issues.

“We are being singled out,” claims the head of obstetrics at a repeatedly damaged hospital in Kherson. The government has disputed deliberately targeting civilians.

“In fact, every facility can be under attack now,” comments a medical director in Sumy. “When defensive systems shoot down an aircraft, the falling debris could impact a hospital.”

Accountability Evaporates

For the more than 676 million women living within range of fighting, there are minimal protections and a stark lack of legal accountability for those attacking childbirth services.

This lack of accountability has fostered a “environment where anything goes,” argues a human rights lawyer. “Assaults against maternal services, like coerced birth or involuntary sterilization, are potentially acts of genocide by destroying a group's future.”

Additional Hotspots

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 scarce because of a lack of access from rebel-held areas. Nevertheless, shelling in Goma hit a neonatal ward, killing mothers, babies, and nurses.

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 Collapse of Safe Childbirth

Most maternal deaths are preventable with routine care, 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 broader and more sinister pattern: the use of violence against hospitals as a weapon to spread fear 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 ‘prejudicial to the opposing side’, which has now become a standard defence.”