A mountain of waste collapsed overnight from Saturday to Sunday at the Dar Es Salam landfill in Conakry, burying homes and killing at least thirty people.
The disaster occurred before dawn, triggered by torrential rains that destabilized a pile of waste at the Dar Es Salam landfill in the Guinean capital. Informal dwellings located nearby were engulfed. Six other people were seriously injured.
Guinea's Minister of Territorial Administration, Djenabou Touré, visited the site on Sunday morning, as bulldozers searched the rubble for possible survivors and additional bodies.
The irony of the timing is cruel: Lieutenant Colonel Baldé Mamadou Bailo, head of sanitation at the Military Engineering Battalion, confirmed that the site's closure was precisely scheduled for that Sunday. Authorities had, in fact, ordered the eviction of residents living in makeshift housing around the landfill shortly before the tragedy, fearing a risk of collapse.
Heavy seasonal rains are a regular cause of this type of accident in several sub-Saharan African countries. Uganda and Ethiopia have experienced similar tragedies in recent years.
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