UNIMAGINABLE

11 Babies Killed in Hospital Fire as Flames From ‘Short Circuit’ Sweep Maternity Unit

The tragedy in Senegal comes after a separate hospital fire in the country killed four infants last year.

Eleven newborn babies were killed in a hospital fire in Tivaouane, western Senegal, according to officials in the country. The deadly blaze erupted in the maternity unit at Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital, Senegalese President Macky Sall tweeted on Wednesday night. Authorities suspected a short circuit as the cause of the fire. Three babies were rescued from the inferno, Tivaouane mayor Demba Diop Sy said, adding that the flames spread very quickly. “To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy,” President Sall tweeted. This week’s tragedy comes after four babies died in a hospital fire in the northern Senegalese town of Linguère last year. An electrical fault in an air conditioning unit was thought to have triggered the 2021 fire. “More babies burned in a public hospital,” opposition MP Mamadou Lamine Diallo tweeted Wednesday. “This is unacceptable.”