Landslide at Conakry landfill kills 30 after heavy rain

A landslide at the largest landfill in Conakry, Guinea, killed 30 people early on Sunday after heavy overnight rain caused a massive mound of refuse to collapse onto nearby dwellings.

The incident occurred around 2 a.m. local time in the Dar-es-Salam area of the Gbessia commune. Government figures put the death toll at 30, with six people seriously injured and 16 lightly injured. Rescue operations involving the military and excavators were still under way hours later.

Witnesses described the slide as large enough to bury an apartment building along with informal shacks. One resident, Cire Diallo, told reporters that her five children were among the dead.

Guinea's minister of territorial administration, Djenab Toure, had announced on Thursday that the site would close because of the danger it posed during the rainy season. Waste was to be relocated outside the capital. Eviction notices had been issued, but many families remained.

Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah visited the scene. A previous landslide at the same dump killed 10 people in 2017.

Open-air landfills in densely populated West African cities often sit close to informal settlements. Heavy seasonal rains regularly destabilise the piles. The Conakry disaster underlines the gap between official closure plans and the continued presence of people living at the edge of the waste.