Residents of the Cité Niakh district in Saint-Louis woke up this weekend to sadness and dismay following the collapse of a slab on a disadvantaged family. Two girls aged 4 and 6 lost their lives and their seriously injured mother was admitted to the emergency room of the Saint-Louis Regional Hospital Center. They lived in an old building located in this district of the Faubourg de Sor. The incident occurred on Saturday, around 5 a.m. A deafening noise attracted the attention of the neighborhood. A tragedy had just taken place within the Niang family. “This old building did not offer all the guarantees of security,” suggested relatives of the bereaved family. They told us that for some time now, this family, who wanted to move, had been looking for new premises due to the dilapidated state of the house. “Our family home is under construction and we had just rented this house long enough to finish the work but unfortunately, God wanted it otherwise,” regretted a relative of the victim. The tragedy that occurred in the Niakh neighborhood before its macabre toll once again puts on the table the nagging question of old buildings which threaten ruin in Saint-Louis. A critical situation which requires immediate treatment of this scourge to prevent other similar disasters from occurring in the future.
YVES TENDENG
