Childbirth under attack: how women and babies became targets in conflicts around the world

"Thirty women were sheltering in the Saudi maternity hospital in El Fasher, Sudan, on 28 October when the massacre began. Some had just given birth and others were still in labour. Working at the hospital that night, lab technician Abdo-Rabo Ahmed, 28, was one of the few known survivors. I heard the voices of women and children screaming, he says. They were killing everybody inside the hospital. Those of us who were able to run, did."

"In one of the most horrifying incidents of the north African country's two-year civil war, armed soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting the Sudanese army, stormed the hospital, reportedly killing more than 460 patients and their companions. It was an unspeakable atrocity, say rights groups, and one of the worst recent examples of the collapse in protection for the hundreds of millions of civilians trapped in areas of conflict in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan."

Armed Rapid Support Forces soldiers stormed the Saudi maternity hospital in El Fasher on 28 October, where about 30 women were sheltering; some had just given birth and others were in labour. A lab technician survivor described women and children screaming as attackers killed people inside and those able to run fled. Rights groups described the incident as an unspeakable atrocity and a stark example of collapsing protection for civilians across conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Myanmar, the DRC and Sudan. Data shows nearly 300 attacks on maternity care over three years and at least 119 direct strikes on hospitals and delivery wards.

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