At least 11 newborn babies have died when fire broke out at a hospital in the western Senegalese city of Tivaouane just before midnight.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall confirmed the news in a statement on his official twitter page on Thursday following the incident.
“I have just learned with pain and consternation the death of 11 new born babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in Tivaouane,” said Sall in a tweet.
According to AFP report, the tragedy believed to have been caused by a short circuit occurred at Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in the transport hub of Tivaouane.
The Hospital was newly inaugurated and the mayor of the city, Demba Diop Sy, said three babies were saved from the blaze and the fire service were still at the hospital.
sall, who is on a state visit to Angola, has expressed his deepest sympathy to the mothers of the deceased victims and their families.
On the other hand, the minister of healthy in the country Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who is in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, said he will cut short the trip and return home immediately to attend to the situation.
The accident comes nearly a month after wide spread outrage in the country following the death of a pregnant woman who was refused medical care after medical staff refused to accommodate her request for a C-section, claiming she was not scheduled.
In April, another fire broke out at a hospital in the northern town of Linguere killing four newborn babies and the mayor of the town had cited an electrical malfunction caused the tragedy.