Landfill Collapse Kills at Least 30 in Guinea's Capital, Hours Before the Dump Was Set to Close

A Disaster Foretold

The Dar-es-Salam dump had been scheduled to close that very day, and authorities had ordered evictions around the site in recent days over fears of exactly this collapse. Many residents had left, but many others were still there when the rain-soaked mound gave way, according to officials.

"We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue," neighborhood leader Lancine Sylla told the AFP news agency before the official toll was announced. One woman told local media her five children died in the disaster, and officials fear the toll will rise as searches continue.

Excavators and a Military Search

The government said "significant material and human resources," including the military, were deployed to find anyone still buried. Excavators combed through the scattered refuse as crowds watched, and Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah visited the scene to oversee the operation.

The site has killed before: a landslide at the same dump left 10 people dead in 2017. Exiled opposition figure Cellou Dalein Diallo called the collapse "a tragedy that plunges us into dismay" and demanded a transparent investigation into why it happened on the day of the planned closure.

What Comes Next

The government says remaining families will be relocated and the wounded treated at state expense. The harder question is accountability in a country where, despite the world's largest bauxite deposits, nearly 44 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and where warnings about the dump preceded the disaster by years.