Tragedy as eleven new born babies die in Senegalese hospital fire

The Senegalese Health Minister, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, has confirmed the death of 11 new born babies in a fire that engulfed the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in the northwestern city of Tivaouane.

Sarr said the inferno which occurred on Wednesday night, was triggered by a short circuit according to a preliminary investigation carried out by the country’s fire department.

“This situation is very unfortunate and extremely painful,” Sarr said on radio, adding that the investigation was continuing.

Sarr, who is in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, said he would cut short the trip and return to Senegal immediately.

President Macky Sall who reacted to the incident in a tweet on Thursday, said:

“I have just learned with pain and consternation the death of 11 newborn babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in Tivaouane.

“To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy,” Sall who is on a state visit to Angola, wrote.

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Opposition politician Mamadou Lamine Diallo also responded with outrage to the Tivaouane blaze that killed the babies.

“More babies burned in a public hospital … this is unacceptable @MackySall,” he wrote on Twitter.

“We suffer with the families to whom we offer our condolences. Enough is enough,” he added.

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