Six Senegalese midwives charged over pregnant woman’s death

Six midwives in Senegal had been charged over a pregnant female’s death in a medical institution this month, their attorney said Wednesday, in an affair that sparked outrage inside the West African nation.

Astou Sokhna died at nine months pregnant in a public medical institution in early April in the northern metropolis of Louga after she, again and again, pleaded with docs to carry out a cesarean segment.

But the medical institution refused her request seeing that the operation had now not been deliberate in advance, and threatened to expel her if she insisted on the system, in keeping with press reviews.

Sokhna and her baby both died after a reported 20-hour wait, provoking an outpouring of anger on social media in Senegal. The president also promised to launch a probe.

The local press initially reported that she died on April 7, but Senegalese Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sall recently said that her death occurred on April 1.

On Wednesday, lawyer Abdou Daff told AFP that six midwives had been charged for failing to assist a person in danger.

Four were detained in Louga on Tuesday evening, he said, while the remaining two have been released provisionally.

The healthcare people union ASAS began a three-day strike Wednesday over the detention of the midwives, as well as pay situations.

In a statement, it accused the authorities of failing to look forward to the consequences of the research and of throwing health workers “into the media lynch mob”.