CNN
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Eleven newborn babies have died after a fire broke out at the neonatal department at Mame Abdou Aziz Sai Dabakh Hospital in the western Senegal city of Tiwaune, the country’s President Mackie Sall said on Thursday.
“I just learned with pain and panic the death of 11 newborn babies,” Saul said in a tweet.
“I express my deepest condolences to their mothers and their families,” he said.
CNN has contacted the hospital but has yet to hear back.
In a statement later on Thursday, the country’s health ministry said an emergency response plan has been put in place and “arrangements are being made to assist the families of the victims.”
A ministry statement said Health Minister Abdoul Diouf Sarr, who is attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, has cut short his travel and will return to Senegal today.
The Senegalese minister of regional planning and local government, Sheikh Bamba Die, called the fatality “horrific and unacceptable”, urging an investigation into the country’s health systems.
“I am shocked by the horrific and unacceptable death of 11 newborn babies in Tiwaune. The recurrence of tragedies in our hospitals reminds us of our obligation to thoroughly review the quality of service in our hospitals. My deepest condolences to the families,” he said. Told In a Twitter post.
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