Mother’s childbirth highlights strain in Senegal’s public hospitals

A difficult childbirth experienced by Awa Diba has highlighted reported pressures in Senegal’s public healthcare system, as medical workers continue to raise concerns about staffing, equipment and investment.

Diba went into labour 24 hours before health workers across the country were due to begin a strike. After 24 hours of labour, she left hospital with a healthy daughter.

She said she shared a room with four other women and described cracks in the ceiling, a fan that did not work, differences in air conditioning between rooms and electricity that was available only intermittently.

“There is a lot of shouting,” Diba said, describing the atmosphere during her stay. She said women cried and were frightened, while their distress was sometimes met with the instruction: “Be quiet.”

“I saw things inside the hospital that shocked me,” she said.

Strikes disrupt routine care

Doctors, pharmacists and dental surgeons held a strike on September 16 and 17, following a 48-hour stoppage the previous week. Emergency services continued, but routine medical activities were disrupted, according to the report.

The SAMES medical union has called for additional recruitment, better career and pension conditions, and increased investment in hospitals and medical equipment, particularly outside Dakar. The union says its demands date back to 2023.

Dr Diabel Drame, SAMES’s secretary-general, said the union had repeatedly sought a response. “We waited, we hoped and we followed up,” he said. “Unfortunately, no plausible response was given to us.”

Dr Marc Manga, a SAMES member in Ziguinchor, said the challenge extended beyond the number of doctors available. “How can we talk about quality of care when hospitals lack basic equipment and patients have to travel hundreds of kilometres to get a diagnosis?” he said.

At the end of 2024, Senegal had 5,236 doctors registered with its National Medical Council, according to the council’s president. Of those, 4,407 worked in the public sector.

Economic pressures

The concerns over public healthcare come amid wider financial pressures. The International Monetary Fund said Senegal’s economy grew by 6.7 percent in 2025, but estimated total public-sector debt at 132 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2024.

An IMF reconciliation exercise also revised central government debt at the end of 2023 from 74.4 percent to 111 percent of GDP, primarily because of previously undisclosed liabilities. Government audits after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye took office uncovered previously undisclosed borrowing and led to revisions of the country’s debt figures.

Foreign aid has also supported healthcare programmes in Senegal. Reporting by Le Monde and other organisations working in the country said cuts to United States aid affected programmes covering HIV, malaria and reproductive health.

Faye has described the global debt architecture as “inadequate” and “inequitable”, arguing that it limits access to essential public services, including healthcare and education. He travelled to Washington for talks with the IMF and World Bank and later went to Abu Dhabi to meet investors and financial backers.

The president was expected to call at the United Nations for broader debt relief for African countries. At a June 2026 conference in Accra, he said Senegal was committed to advancing reparatory justice. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko has also expressed support for economic reparations for Africa over the transatlantic slave trade and slavery.

A future in healthcare

Diba grew up in Casamance in southern Senegal and studied digital communication at university in Ziguinchor. She later moved to Dakar and retrained as a nurse, completing placements at Hopital Principal de Dakar and the Albert Royer children’s hospital.

She said she plans to specialise in haematology. But reflecting on her daughter’s future, Diba said: “I don’t want my daughter to experience this.”