Russian attacks on medical facilities in Ukraine made 2022 the most violent year in a decade for hospitals and health workers operating in conflict zones, according to a new report by a coalition of humanitarian organizations.
With 750 reported attacks in 2022, Russia set a 10-year record, according to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, which includes Human Rights Watch and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health.
More than half of the 1,989 attacks on health facilities and workers reported globally took place in Ukraine and Myanmar. Under international law, attacking or interfering with medical services during an armed conflict is a war crime.
The global situation is not set to improve in 2023 as attacks in Ukraine are not subsiding and new conflicts appear. The war in Sudan started in April and has brought the country’s already struggling healthcare system to near collapse, with hospitals and clinics looted and bombed, and medics kidnapped.
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