The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently reported increased violent attacks on healthcare facilities worldwide. According to WHO, more than 10,400 attacks on healthcare have been documented across 29 countries and territories since 2018, with over 5,700 people killed and 8,500 injured.
The report said in the first seven months and part of August 2026 alone, such attacks resulted in over 900 deaths with more than 1,400 people injured. The majority of these attacks, it said, occurred in Ukraine, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory and Myanmar.
Nigeria is not exempted in this worrisome development. Increasingly, hospitals, clinics, ambulances, doctors, nurses and other health workers are coming under horrendous attacks. The figures are horrifying enough, but statistics can sometimes conceal the human tragedy behind them. Every death represents a family robbed of a parent, child, spouse or breadwinner. Every injury to a health worker diminishes their professional capacity to save lives. A destroyed hospital denies thousands of patients of a place to seek treatment. Preventing an ambulance from reaching a patient can mean the difference between life and death.
The global situation is deeply disturbing. WHO, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières recently warned that hospitals are being reduced to rubble while ambulances face delays and obstruction, with doctors, nurses and patients caught in attacks. They stressed that protecting healthcare is an obligation under international humanitarian law.
Nigeria must pay particular attention to this warning. The country is already struggling with a fragile healthcare system and inadequate infrastructure. There are shortages of personnel and medical equipment. Healthcare facilities are sanctuaries where the sick and injured seek healing. They are not battlegrounds where lives should be threatened. Healthcare facilities should be protected against attacks.
For years, terrorism and insurgency have taken a terrible toll on healthcare in parts of Nigeria, particularly in the North. Health facilities have been damaged or abandoned, while health workers have been killed, abducted or forced to flee their duty posts. The WHO previously reported that most health facilities and infrastructure in parts of the North-East had been damaged during the crisis, while some health workers had been killed or abducted and many others had fled to safety. The consequence was that millions of people had limited or no access to basic primary healthcare.
The loss of health workers is difficult to replace. Training a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, laboratory scientist or other healthcare professional takes years and substantial investment. When one is killed or forced out of service by insecurity, Nigeria loses not only a human being but also an important part of its limited healthcare capacity.
The danger extends beyond hospitals. Ambulances must be able to move freely and safely. An emergency referral is often a race against time. A patient suffering severe bleeding, a pregnant woman experiencing complications or a child in critical condition may need to be transferred immediately to a better-equipped hospital. If an ambulance is delayed because of armed attackers, a treatable condition can become fatal.
This is why attacks on healthcare facilities should be treated as attacks on the country’s ability to save lives. They deepen the burden on an already stretched health system. The federal and state governments must therefore make the protection of healthcare facilities a specific component of national security planning. Hospitals and primary healthcare centres in areas vulnerable to terrorist or insurgent attacks should receive adequate security. Security agencies must work closely with health authorities to identify vulnerable facilities, assess threats and establish quick-response mechanisms.
Affected healthcare facilities must also be rebuilt without unnecessary delay. Government should replace stolen or destroyed equipment and ensure that reconstructed facilities have appropriate security arrangements. Most importantly, the government must win the wider war against terrorism and insurgency. Permanent security around hospitals cannot substitute for restoring peace in communities. Terrorist groups must be prevented from operating freely, kidnapping citizens or intimidating public servants.
Intelligence gathering, inter-agency coordination and effective action against criminal networks must be strengthened. There must equally be accountability. Those who kill health workers, destroy hospitals or obstruct medical transport must be pursued and brought to justice. Healthcare workers deserve to perform their duties without fear. Patients deserve to enter hospitals confident that they will be protected. Families deserve to know that the people who leave home to save lives will return safely.
The WHO figures are a grim reminder of what happens when healthcare loses its protection. Nigeria must act fast. Healthcare facilities and healthcare providers must be protected always. The government must secure hospitals, rebuild those damaged by violence and, above all, intensify efforts to defeat terrorism and restore lasting security. A country cannot build a resilient health system while allowing the people and facilities that sustain it to remain targets. Healthcare must be protected.
(The Sun)