AFRICA

SENEGAL: POLICE ARREST TWO AFTER DEATH OF 11 BABIES IN FIRE

SENEGAL: POLICE ARREST TWO AFTER DEATH OF 11 BABIES IN FIRE
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Ekeomah Atuonwu

Senegalese authorities detained two health workers from a neonatal unit where 11 newborns died in a fire last week.

When the fire broke out at the Abdoul Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Dakar, the nurse and a nurse’s aide were on duty.

According to RFM, they were arrested for “neglecting children” and “endangering the lives of others.”

The arrests came just days after President Macky Sall promised to conduct an investigation into the cause of the fire. He also demanded that all medical equipment used to care for newborns in the country be audited.

AEM had also reported that, Health Minister Abdoulaye DioufSarr was fired last week and replaced by senior ministry official Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye.

Family members console each other outside the Mame Abdoul Aziz SyDabakh Hospital, where eleven babies died following an electrical fault, in Tivaouane, on May 26, 2022. / AFP

Sarr, who was in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, cut his trip short to return to Senegal and told RFM that the fire was started by an electrical short circuit. The 11 babies were buried on Sunday.

Four other newborns died in a hospital fire in Linguere, northern Senegal, a year ago.

Other deaths have also raised concerns about maternal and infant health in the West African country, which is thought to have some of the best hospitals in the region.

Authorities discovered earlier this month that a baby declared dead by a nurse’s aide was still alive in a morgue. The infant died later.

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Ekeomah Atuonwu

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