CONAKRY, Guinea — A massive pile of waste collapsed at Conakry’s largest landfill early Sunday, killing at least 30 people and injuring six others after heavy overnight rains triggered a landslide that buried nearby homes.
Rain began falling around 2 a.m. and saturated the open-air dump at Dar Es Salam, causing the refuse heap to give way and smash into shacks at the edge of the site, according to the central government. Search-and-rescue teams were working through the debris to look for additional survivors. Several homes were destroyed.
The dump, the biggest in the capital, had been scheduled for closure on Sunday, said Lt. Col. Baldé Mamadou Bailo, sanitation officer for the military engineering battalion. Authorities had issued eviction notices to residents living around the site, prompting some families to leave, but many people remained in the area when the collapse occurred.
“We will ensure that the remaining families are relocated elsewhere,” Dienabou Touré, the minister of territorial administration and decentralization, said at the scene.
Guinea holds the world’s largest known reserves of bauxite and also possesses significant deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds. Yet more than 43 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, according to the World Bank.
