Senegal: 11 newborn babies die in mysterious inferno

Tivaouane, Senegal- 11 newborn babies have died following a fire that occurred in the Neonatology Department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital.

According to a Senegalese politician, Diop Sy, the fire was caused by a short circuit and this is despite the fact that the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital had just been built and was still new.

“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,” said President, Macky Sall.

The tragedy in Tivaouane comes after several other incidents at public health facilities in Senegal, where there is a great disparity between urban and rural areas in healthcare services.

Last month in Lingerie, a fire broke out at a hospital and four newborn babies were killed as a result of an electrical malfunction in an air conditioning unit in the Maternity Ward.

Meanwhile, Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, has said the cholera outbreak which started last year in October has now claimed the lives of 140 people.

“The updated epidemiological situation report shows a total of 7 287 notified cases, including 140 deaths, since October 2021. Three regions continue to record new patients,” said the Prime Minister, adding that a vaccination campaign is to start next month.

The last cholera outbreak in the country occurred between January and August 2020, when 66 people lost their lives.

Outbreaks occur periodically in Cameroon, a West African nation of more than 25 million inhabitants.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), last year, there were between 1.3 million and 4 million cases of cholera around the world, leading to between 21 000 and 143 000 deaths.