Eleven newborn babies died in a hospital fire blamed on an electrical short circuit in the western Senegalese city of Tivaouane on Wednesday. The AFP news agency reports that this is the latest in a series of hospital deaths that have exposed the weaknesses of the nation’s healthcare system, and comes over a month after the nation mourned the death of a pregnant woman who waited in vain for a caesarean section. The country’s Health Minister, who had been in Geneva attending a meeting with the World Health Organisation, said “an investigation is under way to see what happened” while Amnesty International has called for those responsible to be punished “no matter the level they are at in the state apparatus”.
