30 Deaths in Guinea as Waste Dump Collapses over Conakry Homes

A massive mound of discarded rubbish at a major waste site in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, collapsed onto nearby neighbourhoods at approximately 02:00 local time, killing at least 30 residents and injuring twenty‑two more, government officials announced.

The disaster occurred after heavy rain overnight, which apparently destabilised the stack of waste that had been piled in the area. Local residents reported that several of the families buried under the debris were unable to escape, and some bodies were pulled out of the rubble by neighbourhood leaders. One woman whose five children perished under the collapse described the scene as “a nightmare in my mind.”

In response, the Guinean military and civil‑engineering units were dispatched to the site to search for survivors and to clear the debris. Rescuers were seen operating excavators to sift through the cluttered mound. Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah visited the scene and inspected the damage, directing the search and rescue teams to prioritise areas that appeared most affected.

According to a neighbourhood leader, Lancine Sylla, at least 18 bodies have been recovered and taken to the local morgue. Yet observers warn that more victims may still be trapped beneath the collapsed layer, raising concerns that the death toll could rise further before the search ends.

This incident is the latest in a series of waste‑related landslides; a similar collapse at the same site in 2017 killed ten people. The repeated nature of these disasters points to insufficient waste‑management infrastructure and the need for coordinated urban planning in Guinea’s rapidly growing capital.