President Macky Sall says 11 newborns died in a fire in a hospital’s neonatal section in Senegal. Only three babies were able to be spared.
“I convey my heartfelt sympathies to their mothers and families,” Sall tweeted late Wednesday.
Mayor Demba Diop blamed the incident on an electrical short circuit at the Abdoul Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a village 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Dakar.
According to Senegalese media, Interior Minister Antoine Diome declared that authorities will launch an investigation into the state of the hospital’s facilities as well as other health care facilities.
A year ago, four additional newborns died in a hospital fire in Linguere, Senegal’s northern region.
A slew of additional deaths has sparked concerns about maternal and baby health in the West African country, which boasts some of the region’s best institutions.
Authorities discovered a kid who had been certified dead by a nurse’s assistant was still alive in a mortuary earlier this month. The baby died afterward.
A pregnant woman died last year in Louga, in the country’s north, after waiting for a cesarean section in vain. Three midwives were sentenced to six months in prison with a six-month suspension for failing to assist a person in danger.
Minister of Health Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who was in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, cut his trip short to return to Senegal.
