Central African Republic

Refugee women in CAR face childbirth risks amid US funding cuts

A woman holds her baby outside the registration centre for new refugees on the outskirts of the Korsi refugee camp in Birao, Central African Republic. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Maude Ahmad Fadala rocks her baby inside the Korsi refugee camp, where she gave birth in the street in Birao. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Women crowd the tiny maternity ward in Birao, which has just eight beds for about 70,000 locals and 22,000 Sudanese refugees, in a country where more than 40 percent of births already take place outside any health facility. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi camp in Birao. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

A nurse gives painkillers to patient Amna Adam Hessen, whose baby was delivered stillborn the previous day. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Patients sit thigh‑to‑thigh on hard benches in the sweltering maternity ward as staff say the number of women arriving daily has tripled since Sudan’s war began in early 2023, overwhelming a health system already weakened by years of internal conflict. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

A nurse checks on a woman recovering from heavy bleeding after a complicated breech delivery, one of the preventable emergencies that become lethal when pregnancies go unmonitored despite World Health Organization guidance for at least eight prenatal visits. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Women wait outside the delivery room at the Birao District Hospital. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Heavily pregnant Sudanese refugees queue for water in a camp near the Sudan border, where displacement, poverty and lack of education intersect with a collapsed referral system, leaving many unsure whether any help will be available when labour starts. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

A pharmacist hands pregnant women painkillers from boxes at the pharmacy of the Birao District Hospital. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Refugee Amna Adam Hessen lies on a bare foam mattress after losing her breech baby and bleeding heavily during labour, a death narrowly averted in a country where nearly two‑thirds of maternal deaths worldwide occur in conflict or fragile settings. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]

Women line up outside the maternity entrance at Birao District Hospital, one of the only facilities in the area that used to receive reproductive health supplies from UNFPA — the sole provider in town — before aid cuts threw maternal care into a deeper crisis. [Caitlin Kelly/AP Photo]