Landfill collapse kills eight in Guinea as family homes are buried by garbage

At least eight people, including two children, have died in Guinea after a rubbish dump site collapsed on houses due to heavy rains.

Dozens were also injured in the incident, which occurred on the outskirts of the capital Conarky on Tuesday ( 22 August).

The landslide submerged houses in the Dar Es Salam neighbourhood after an overnight deluge.

The bodies of the victims were taken to the local morgue. The death toll is expected to increase.

"The rubbish fell onto three homes," senior police official Boubacar Kasse, the police commissioner for Conakry, told AFP.

"There are still many people buried, and we have to do everything possible to save them. We have to get diggers in. Access to the area is very difficult," he continued.

Rescue teams are looking for survivors.

"Currently rescue operations are under way," the government said in a statement quoted by Reuters. "On this sad occasion, the government addresses its deepest condolences to the victims' families."

Dar Es Salam resident Yamoussa Soumah said: "I saw the mountain of garbage collapse on other people's houses. People were trapped. My wife and I heard the mud begin falling on our roof. We were able to escape, but we've lost everything."

Similar incidents have occurred in several countries across Africa in recent months.

Some of these countries are among the continent's poorest nations. They are vulnerable to heavy rainfalls and prone to national disasters due to a lack of urban drainage, and the fact that many houses – mostly ramshackle – are built on slopes.

At least 200 people were killed in a landslide in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) earlier in August. The incident occurred in the Tora village, situated along Lake Albert. The local governor called for the help of the international community to step up search and rescue operations.

"There are many people submerged whom we were unable to save," Pacifique Keta, the vice governor of Ituri province, told Reuters on 18 August. "The rescue is very complicated because there are mountains everywhere, which makes it very difficult to have access."

Around 500 people died in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown after torrential rains caused flooding and a massive mudslide on 14 August, leaving hundreds of survivors homeless.

The Red Cross said at least 600 people are still missing and search-and-rescue operations are ongoing.

Health workers warned of an impending health crisis as corpses had been left in the out in the street before mass burials took place.

What has been labelled as one of Africa's worst natural disasters of recent years took place months after at least 72 people were killed when a rubbish dump collapsed in Ethiopia.

The disaster at the Koshe Garbage Landfill, on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, occurred on 12 March and destroyed makeshift houses at the site.

23 August 2017

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/landfill-collapse-kills-eight-guinea-family-homes-are-buried-by-garbage-1636279

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Human bones sent for forensic test

Around 16 severed human body parts and 13 bones, found in four sacks at Dhaka South City Corporation landfill in Matuail yesterday, might have been trashed by a medical student studying anatomy.

The body and skeleton parts had probably been treated with preservatives and used by medical college students for studying, said the morgue sources at Sir Salimullah Medical College.

A board of forensic experts at the college would be formed today to conduct forensic tests on the body parts.

Nobody had gone to the morgue until yesterday evening to claim any unidentified bodies.

“The veins of the hands and legs, sticking out of the limbs, could have been preserved for anatomy students,” said a police official of Jatrabari Police Station, wishing anonymity.

He added that the details would be available once the forensic tests were completed.

A forensic expert speaking to The Daily Star, however, doubted the possibility.

The body parts or skeletons used for academic purposes are usually processed in a very careful way, they said, so that they are without cuts or scratches, but these have hacksaw cuts in them.

They mentioned that anatomy students either sell the skeleton or keep it with them for a lifetime, instead of trashing them when their studies are finished.

Meanwhile, police are yet to confirm the area from where the sacks were brought and dumped into the landfill.

Every night, 250-280 garbage trucks dump their loads in that zone, said Abdulla Harun, an assistant engineer at Waste Management Department of Dhaka South City Corporation.

He added the sacks had probably been dumped on late Thursday or early Friday, as garbage trucks usually dump trash in that particular spot after 11:00pm.

Monday 26 August 2013

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/human-bones-sent-for-forensic-test/

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Body parts came from a medical college: Police

Police now suspects that the 16 severed human body parts and 13 bones which were recovered from Dhaka South City Corporation landfill in Matuail on Friday, came from an anatomy department of some medical college in the capital.

Demra zone’s Assistant Commissioner of police Minhazul Islam said the bones and body parts were chemically decomposed with material used to preserve bodies. “It seems absurd that criminals would preserve the bodies after killing,” he observed.

Minhazul Islam said some veins of the bodies were cut off similar to the way anatomy students at medical colleges cut while learning dissection. The bones were also attached by screw, which matches with works by medical students at dissection class, he added.

A police official of Jatrabari Police Station seeking anonymity said, a primary probe has found that the bodies were dumped by a private medical college at Dhanmondi. It is illegal to dump bodies for medical use, he added.

However, Inspector (Investigation) of Jatrabari Police Station Abani Shankar Kar said, they will not comment over the issue before the DNA test is done.

Meanwhile, a medical board is supposed to be set up at Sir Salimullah Medical College to conduct the DNA test.

Monday 26 August 2013

http://www.dhakatribune.com/crime/2013/aug/26/body-parts-came-medical-college-police

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Human body parts found in landfill

Police yesterday recovered around 16 severed human body parts and 13 bones at Dhaka South City Corporation landfill in Matuail.

They, however, could not say whether criminals dumped those, in four sacks, after killing people or those were from hospitals or anatomy departments of medical schools.

Ragpickers made the grisly discovery around 5:30am, and waste management staff informed the police of the matter.

There were seven legs, three hands and six parts of heads and chests, said Minhajul Islam, senior assistant commissioner (AC) of Demra zone of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Some of the bones were screwed and wired together.

He said police were suspecting there could be bodies of a man and a woman somewhere in the landfill.

The recovered body parts, which seemed to have been cut with hacksaw blades and had preservatives on them, were first taken to Jatrabari Police Station and later sent to Sir Salimullah Medical College morgue.

According to police, one of the hands had painted nails, suggesting that it might be of a female. They could not say how many people the body parts belonged to.

Samples would be sent to DNA laboratory for identification of the deceased, AC Minhajul added.

Asked from which area the body parts were taken to the landfill, the Jatrabari Police Station’s officer-in-charge (investigation) refused to say anything without completing investigation.

Every night 250-280 garbage trucks dump garbage in that zone, said Abdulla Harun, an assistant engineer at Waste Management Department of Dhaka South City Corporation.

He said the sacks were probably dumped early yesterday or very late into Thursday night as garbage trucks dumped trash in that particular spot after 11:00pm.

A source in charity organisation Anjuman Mofidul Islam said they were the one who usually receive unidentified or unclaimed bodies or parts of bodies from Dhaka Medical College and Sir Salimullah Medical College morgues and that they bury the bodies or parts of bodies in Azimpur or Jurain graveyard.

Saturday 24 August 2013

http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/16-human-body-parts-found-in-landfill/

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