TIVAOUANE – Senegalese President Macky Sall sacked his health minister Abdoudaye Diouf Sarr on Thursday as his country mourned the death of 11 newborn babies in a hospital fire attributed to an electrical short circuit.
Wednesday night’s tragedy in the western town of Tivaouane was just the latest in a string of hospital deaths that have exposed weaknesses in the country’s health system.
Sall previously announced the tragedy on Twitter and declared a three-day national mourning.
“I have just learned with pain and dismay of the death of 11 newborns in the fire at the neonatal unit of the public hospital,” he wrote.
“I send my deepest condolences to their mothers and families.”
Outside the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in Tivaouane, a town of 40,000 people, one of the distraught mothers called her son.
“Where is Muhammad?” she cried.
Her baby was taken to hospital 10 days ago and christened on Monday, Mohamed’s father, Alioune Diouf, 54, said.
The city’s mayor, Demba Diop, said the fire was caused by a short circuit and spread very quickly.
He denied claims by relatives in hospital and on social media that the babies had been left alone, and said a midwife and nurse were present on Wednesday evening.
“There was a noise and an explosion that lasted three minutes at most,” he said outside the hospital entrance.
“Firefighters arrived five minutes later. People used fire extinguishers.”
The mayor said the air conditioning accelerated the flames, adding that the two nurses passed out but were revived.
“There was no negligence,” Diop said.
However, the disaster prompted calls for the resignation of Diouf Sarr, who was also cited in the media as responsible for a power outage.
The presidency indicated in the evening that he would be replaced by Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye, the former director general of the health agency.
Sall would return early from abroad and visit the hospital on Saturday, his office said.
- AFP
