Thirty people have been killed in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, after a large mound of rubbish at a landfill collapsed onto nearby homes early Sunday following heavy rainfall, the government has confirmed.
The incident occurred around 2:00am (0200 GMT) in the Dar-es-Salam neighbourhood of the Bbessia district, on the outskirts of the capital. Six other people sustained serious injuries in the collapse.
The government said rescue teams and emergency workers had been deployed to search for anyone who could still be trapped beneath the debris, rescue survivors and recover the bodies of those who died.
“Significant material and human resources have been deployed to search for any people who may still be buried, to rescue the victims and to recover the bodies,” the government added.
Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah visited the site as rescue operations continued. AFP images from the scene showed excavators digging through the collapsed landfill while residents and onlookers gathered nearby.
Authorities said measures were also being taken “to ensure medical care for the wounded” and “assistance for those affected by this tragedy”.
Before the government announced the official death toll, local neighbourhood leader Lancine Sylla had raised concerns that the number of victims could be high.
“We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue,” he told AFP.
The disaster has also drawn reactions from political figures, including former Prime Minister and opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who is currently living in exile. He described the incident as “a tragedy that plunges us into dismay”.
“This tragedy is all the more worrying because the closure of the dump had been announced for this Sunday, August 23,” he said on Facebook.
“It is now up to the competent authorities to establish, with full transparency, the circumstances that led to this disaster and to draw all the necessary conclusions,” he added in the statement posted before the release of the death toll.
The collapse occurred despite recent government warnings over the safety of the area. Authorities had ordered residents living around the landfill to leave in recent days because of concerns that the site could collapse.
The disaster has renewed concerns over the safety of communities living near waste disposal sites, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall.
Guinea is currently led by General Mamadi Doumbouya, who came to power in a 2021 coup before being elected president in December 2025.
AFP
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