Senegal hospital fire kills eleven newborn babies

Senegal President Macky Sall has commented on a deadly incident at a hospital at a town east of the capital, Dakar.

Eleven newborn babies were killed in an inferno at the newly inaugurated Tivouane hospital.

Sall tweeted: “I learned with pain and dismay about the deaths of 11 newborn babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatal department of Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane”.

“To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy,” his post added.

Tivaouane is around 120km east of Dakar. A local politician Diop Sy was quoted as confirming that the fire was caused by “a short circuit.”