A huge mound of rubbish collapsed onto homes in Conakry after heavy overnight rain, killing at least 31 people. Now, excavators are digging through the waste, hoping to find someone still breathing.
The nightmare happened around 2 a.m. in the Dar-es-Salam neighborhood of Conakry, Guinea’s capital. A huge waste site simply gave way after hours of heavy rain, burying nearby homes in trash and mud.
The death toll is already heavy. The government says at least 31 people are dead and 22 are injured. The human cost is devastating on a deeply personal level. One mother told local media that all five of her children died in the collapse.
Community leader Lancine Sylla was on the ground early, watching the horror unfold.
“We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue,” he told reporters.
The military and heavy machinery are now tearing through the scattered rubbish. Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah visited the site to oversee the search, while Health Minister Khaïté Sall promised free medical care for the survivors.
But this is not the first time this exact spot has turned deadly. In 2017, a similar landslide at the same dump killed 10 people. The government knew the danger. Officials had recently ordered people living too close to the site to move away. But many residents stayed, either because they had no other choice or simply could not afford to leave.
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Opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo, who is currently living in exile, pointed out a bitter irony. The dump was supposed to be shut down this very weekend.
“This tragedy is all the more worrying because the closure of the landfill had been announced for this Sunday, 23 August,” he said.
The rain has stopped, but the excavators are still digging. For the families waiting by the wreckage, a scheduled closure date on a piece of paper does not bring their loved ones back.
