Thirty people died in Guinea's capital, Conakry, on Sunday when a mound of rubbish in a landfill collapsed before dawn onto neighbouring homes following heavy rains, the government said. Six others were seriously injured in the 2:00 am (0200 GMT) incident in the Bbessia district's Dar-es-salam neighbourhood on the capital's outskirts, a government statement said.

"Significant material and human resources have been deployed to search for any people who may still be buried, to rescue the victims and to recover the bodies," the government added. Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah visited the site of the deadly accident, where measures have been taken "to ensure medical care for the wounded" and "assistance for those affected by this tragedy", the government statement said.

Before the official toll's announcement, neighbourhood leader Lancine Sylla had said he feared that many had died in the collapse. "We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue," he told media. One of Guinea's main opposition figures, former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who is in exile abroad, called the accident "a tragedy that plunges us into dismay".

"This tragedy is all the more worrying because the closure of the dump had been announced for this Sunday, August 23," he said on Facebook. In recent days, the government had ordered the eviction of people around the site because of fears of a collapse. Guinea is led by General Mamadi Doumbouya, who came to power in a coup in 2021 before being elected president in December 2025.