Thirty people have been confirmed dead, with another 22 people injured, six of them seriously, following a landslide at a landfill site in the Gbessia Commune of Conakry, the capital of Guinea, on Sunday 23 August 2026. The incident happened at about 2.00 am local time, and caused piled waste from the city to collapse onto nearby dwellings, destroying a number of homes. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, and even artificial deposits such as those found at landfill sites, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.
Authorities in Conakry were reportedly aware of the dangerous situation at the waste site, and had begun to move people from homes close to the site, ahead of a planned closure from Sunday 30 August, which was to be followed by the moving of much of the accumulated waste to a site outside of the city. This move has now been brought forward, with people being more people being moved out of their homes, and waste being loaded onto trucks as it is searched for survivors or Human remains.
West Africa has a distinct two season climatic cycle, with a cool dry season during the northern winter when prevalent winds blow from the Sahara to the northeast, and a warm rainy season during the northern summer when prevalent winds blow from the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. These warm winds from the Atlantic are laden with moisture, which can be lost rapidly when the air encounters cooler conditions, such as when it is pushed up to higher altitudes by the mountains of the Fouta Djallon in Guinea.
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