At least six people have died after a landslide struck the Mossikro neighborhood of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire’s largest city, following heavy overnight rainfall, authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
National Cohesion Minister Myss Belmonde Dogo announced the fatalities in a statement on Facebook, adding that three houses were buried in the Attecoubé district, and seven injured individuals were rushed to Yopougon University Hospital.
“We were lying down when the rain started to come. The earth above fell on the house,” survivor Audrey Toh Lou told AFP.
Côte d’Ivoire’s rainy season, which typically spans from May to late July, frequently leads to floods and landslides. In 2023, five people were killed in a similar incident in the same neighborhood, and the broader rainy season caused around 30 deaths that year.
Heavy rains last year also led to more than 20 fatalities across the country.
Abidjan, home to around six million people, is particularly vulnerable due to informal housing and poorly regulated construction in flood-prone areas. In response, the government has been demolishing informal settlements, but the policy has drawn criticism from residents, opposition groups, and human rights organizations including Amnesty International, who claim evicted families have received little to no resettlement support.