A disturbing incident took place on Friday, October 3, 2025, at the Sédhiou Regional Hospital, where a woman attempted to leave the facility with a patient's baby, after gaining her trust.

It was around 4 p.m. that the hospital director alerted the central police station to an attempted kidnapping in the pediatric ward. Emergency police officers immediately went to the scene to carry out the usual investigations.

According to preliminary findings, A. Coulibaly, a 32-year-old breakfast vendor, became close to F. Mané, a 24-year-old whose baby was hospitalized in the pediatric ward. The suspect is said to have patiently built a bond with the young mother to gain her sympathy and trust.

Taking advantage of this apparent complicity, A. Coulibaly offered to take the child to the mother, who, according to him, would take him to the nurses to have the IV removed. The young mother, trusting, handed him her baby, according to Seneweb sources. This is how A. Coulibaly attempted to discreetly leave the hospital with the infant.

But once at the hospital gate, she aroused the suspicions of hospital security guards, who noticed she was holding administrative documents that were not in her name. Even more troubling, the hospital fees had not been paid, which was an anomaly for a discharge.

Meanwhile, the baby's mother, F. Mané, realizing her child was missing, rushed to the gate shouting "Sama dome, Sama-dome" (my child, my child, in Wolof). The security guards immediately arrested A. Coulibaly, who was placed at the disposal of the head of the pediatrics department, who then notified the hospital director. The latter contacted the central commissioner of Sédhiou.

The public prosecutor at the Sédhiou High Court was informed that the accused had been taken into custody and an investigation was opened to determine the motives for this attempted kidnapping.