Astou Sokhna, the thirties, died on April 7 after asking a caesarean section in a public hospital in the city of Louga, in the north of the country.
Le Monde and AFP
The death at the hospital of a pregnant woman, after what the local press presented as a long agony and a denial of care, arouses a considerable emotion in Senegal, pushing the head of state to react and promise “all the light” on this drama.
The facts date back to several days and occurred in a public hospital in the city of Louga, in the north of the country. According to the Senegalese press, Astou Sokhna, the thirties, married and nine-month pregnant, passed away on April 7 after asking a caesarean section in vain.
The staff at the establishment refused his request, arguing that his operation was not planned, and threatened to hunt her if she insisted. “Unacceptable!” Titled Monday, April 11 in “a” Liberation newspaper.
In the media, the young woman waited for about twenty hours an intervention that never came, before expiring by pronouncing widely relayed words on Monday and Tuesday on social networks: “Operate me because I do not know if I will still be there tomorrow. “His baby was not saved.
Discrimination against women
The director of the hospital, Amadou Guèye Diouf, said Monday night having “triggered an administrative procedure to elucidate the contours of this case (…) and give the appropriate suites”. The case still nourished several “one” of the print media and Online Tuesday.
saying having “learned with the greatest sadness the death of M me Astou Sokhna in the hospital”, President Macky Sall published Monday night a message of “condolences moved to his family” On the social network Snapchat, very popular among Senegalese women.
“I instructed the competent authorities to shed light on the causes of death in order to situate all responsibilities. No failure will be tolerated,” added the head of state, assuring “heart” The health sector and insist “every day on improving the management of populations”.
In recent years, Senegal has achieved significant advances in the field of women’s rights, as evidenced by the adoption in early April of a “Protection of Women’s Protection Act. “, In particular, put an end to the widespread practice of dismissing an employee when it is pregnant.
But the United Nations and the rights defenders regularly call on the authorities to do more to put an end to the discrimination, in particular legal, suffered by women, as well as the violence they commonly the object.
“Justice for Astou”
Louga’s tragedy is the latest of a series of dramas in Senegal in the health sector, where unions regularly deplore a deficit of human, technical and financial resources. Some have already defrayed the column, like the death of four newborns in April 2021 following a fire at the hospital of the city of Linguère, near Louga.
“What hurts it is when we Senegalese do mine to discover frightened what happens in this country. Today, it’s the hospital. Tomorrow, [it will] other [thing]. We will forget and we will go to the next controversy. The daily has a dramatic that he tries everything “, lament Tuesday a twitter user.
On social networks, many messages denounce the treatment reserved for patients in public structures and especially slows that grow many patients to turn to private sector services, despite higher cost. “We can not continue to keep God responsible for our actions,” writes a woman on Twitter.
A petition claiming “Justice for Astou” has already obtained tens of thousands of signatures and a walk is scheduled for Louga on the same theme. According to the press, the victim’s husband filed a complaint on Monday at the local court.