Senegal President sacks health minister after hospital fire that killed eleven babies

Senegalese President Macky Sall has fired his health minister as the country mourns eleven babies killed by a fire at the neonatal ward of a hospital in the western city of Tivaouane.

According to a government statement, Health Minister Diouf Sarr was relieved of his duties Thursday and replaced by a senior ministry official, Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye.

Sarr was attending the World Health Assembly conference in Geneva during the time of the fire at the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital, which occurred late Wednesday. The health ministry said he cut short his trip and returned to Senegal Thursday.

Before his dismissal, Sarr told local radio station RFM that an electrical short circuit caused the blaze which engulfed the Tivaouane hospital's newborn unit.

Senegal has been rocked by several recent health care scandals, including a fire last year at the neonatal unit of a hospital in Linguere, in the country's north. The health ministry said four babies were killed in the Linguere hospital fire last April.

In April, the reported death of a pregnant woman whose three midwives refused a caesarean also sparked outrage in the country.

The Senegalese Minister of regional planning and local government, Cheikh Bamba Dieye, expressed displeasure with what he described as "the recurrence of tragedies" in the country's hospitals while urging a probe of its health systems.

"I am appalled by the horrific and unacceptable death of eleven newborn babies in Tivaouane. The recurrence of tragedies in our hospitals reminds us of the obligation to review the quality of service in our hospitals thoroughly. My deepest condolences to the families," he said in a Twitter post Thursday.

Some Senegalese on social media have blamed the recurring hospital fires on the absence of smoke detectors and functional fire extinguishers in the country's health facilities.

A Twitter user, Massaly Samba, wrote: "Our hospitals have become places of death. Too much negligence, indifference, casualness! Has not gone to the hospital become a risk today?"

Another Twitter user, Mouride_Bi, questioned why the newborns killed in the latest hospital fire were not evacuated when the blaze began.

"11 babies. How could this happen? How could they leave those babies in the fire? Why didn't they evacuate them when the fire started? Were emergency services alerted in time? Were there no emergency fire extinguishers on these premises? No, but that is unacceptable!"

Sall declared three days of national mourning from Thursday, and flags would fly at half-mast during this period, a statement from the Presidency said.

The President also launched an investigation into the cause of the fire.