At least 31 people died when part of a major landfill collapsed onto homes in Conakry’s Dar-es-Salam area on August 23, Guinea’s government said. Twenty-two people were injured, six of them seriously, and rescue teams continued looking for others beneath the waste.
The collapse occurred at about 2 a.m. after heavy rain during the night. The government deployed military personnel and other resources to support the search. Excavators moved through the debris as residents gathered near the site, and officials warned that the fatality count could increase.
Witnesses described more than one movement of the waste. Robert Kamano Sâa said people climbed onto the refuse to help after an initial section gave way. A second section then failed in several stages and covered would-be rescuers, he said. His testimony indicated that the danger continued after the first collapse.
Mamadouba Bangoura, whose home was destroyed, said his family awoke to a loud first movement that stopped short of them. A later wave struck the house and brought it down. His account described residents being buried, but the supplied evidence did not provide a verified number still missing.
Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah visited Dar-es-Salam to review the response and oversee search work. Health Minister Khaïté Sall went to see hospitalized survivors and said treatment would be provided without charge. She also assured affected families of government support.
One woman told local media that five of her children died. Neighborhood leader Lancine Sylla earlier reported that 18 bodies had been recovered and taken to a morgue, a preliminary figure later superseded by the government’s count of at least 31.
The landfill had a record of deadly instability. Ten people were killed at the same location in 2017. The government had recently directed people living nearby to relocate, but many remained. Opposition politician and former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, living outside Guinea, noted that authorities had announced the site’s closure for August 23, the day of the disaster.
Those circumstances raised questions about risk management and settlement around the waste site, but the available evidence did not assign legal responsibility. At the historical reporting point, the immediate facts were a rain-linked overnight collapse, homes buried in Dar-es-Salam, at least 31 deaths and 22 injuries. Search crews were still working, so both the number missing and the final toll remained unsettled.
The announced closure and prior relocation order showed that officials already recognized hazards at the site. The evidence did not explain why closure had not occurred earlier, how many households had been asked to leave or what alternatives were offered. Those unanswered points were relevant to any later accountability review.
