11 newborn babies dead in fire at Senegal hospital

A total of 11 newborn babies have died in a fire at a hospital in Senegal.

Senegal President Macky Sall announced that 11 newborns perished in a blaze that engulfed the neonatal section of a regional hospital in the town of Tivaouane.

“I have just learned with pain and consternation the death of 11 newborn babies in the fire that occurred in the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital in Tivaouane,” Sall said in a statement on Twitter.

The president, who is on a state visit to Angola, offered his condolences to the heartbroken parents of the new babies.

“To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy,” he said.

Investigators believe the fire was ignited by a short circuit, according to Senegal’s health minister, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr.

Sarr is currently in Geneva for the World Health Assembly and said he would cut the trip short and return to Senegal immediately.