A landfill collapse in Conakry, Guinea, killed up to 30 people on Sunday after a landslide buried residential shacks [1].
The disaster highlights the precarious living conditions for residents in the Gbessia commune, where informal housing often borders unstable waste sites.
The collapse occurred at the Dar-es-Salam landfill [2]. Government reports and news agencies provide conflicting death tolls, with some sources stating 30 people died [1, 3, 4], while other officials said at least 22 died [5, 6]. Emergency authorities also said 22 people were injured in the incident [7].
Investigators are currently examining the cause of the landslide. Some reports attribute the collapse to torrential rains that destabilized the mound [8]. Other accounts suggest the landslide was triggered by a heavy train passing near the site [9].
Civil protection officials and emergency teams worked to recover bodies from the debris. The landslide struck a densely populated area where residents had built shacks directly adjacent to the waste site [2, 5].
Rescue operations continued into Monday as authorities searched for additional victims. The disaster has prompted renewed calls for better waste management, and urban planning in the capital city to prevent similar tragedies during the rainy season.
“A landfill collapse in Conakry, Guinea, killed up to 30 people on Sunday”
This incident underscores the intersection of urban poverty and environmental risk in Conakry. The presence of residential shacks on the periphery of a major landfill suggests a lack of available safe housing and inadequate zoning enforcement. Whether caused by weather or industrial activity, the collapse demonstrates how marginalized populations are disproportionately exposed to catastrophic infrastructure failures.
