More than a thousand people died this year during the great annual pilgrimage to Mecca held in sweltering heat, according to an updated AFP count on Thursday.
The new balance includes another 58 Egyptians, which brings to at least 658 the number of pilgrims of this nationality who died during the Haj in Saudi Arabia.
Of them, 630 were in an irregular situation in the kingdom, which distributes visas by country each year on the occasion of the pilgrimage based on a quota system.
In total, 1,081 people from about 10 countries died this year in the great annual pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam with which every Muslim who has sufficient means to do so must comply.
The figures come from official statements or diplomats from the respective countries.
The Hajj, whose dates are determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, fell this year on the threshold of the torrid Saudi summer.
The national meteorological center reported these days a temperature of up to 51.8 ºC in the Great Mosque of Mecca, the holy city where the prophet Muhammad began his preaching.
A Saudi study published in May indicates that temperatures in places where rituals are carried out increase by 0.4ºC Celsius every ten years.
Saudi Arabia has a system of quotas for pilgrims by country, but every year, tens of thousands travel to the kingdom through irregular channels, because they do not have enough money to pay for the official procedure.
These pilgrims are more vulnerable to extreme heat, since in the absence of official documents they cannot access the air-conditioned spaces enabled by the Saudi authorities, which this year received 1.8 million authorized pilgrims.
“People were exhausted“, a diplomat told AFP this Thursday, referring to the exhausting day on Saturday, in which the faithful spent the day outside on the occasion of the climb to Mount Arafat, a hill near Mecca on which according to tradition Muhammad pronounced his last sermon.
According to this diplomat, the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims was heat.
Relatives looking for news
In addition to Egyptians, pilgrims from Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraqi Kurdistan died.
There are also missing people, and their relatives are looking for them in area hospitals.
Facebook and other social networks are flooded with photos of missing people and requests for information.
Saudi Arabia has not provided information on deaths, although on Sunday alone it reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion”.
Last year several countries reported more than 300 deaths during the hajj, most of them Indonesians.
The date of the hajj moves back about 11 days each year in the Gregorian calendar, meaning that next year it will take place earlier, in June, potentially in cooler conditions.
Hosting the hajj is a source of prestige for the Saudi royal family, and King Salman’s official title includes the words “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” in Mecca and Medina.
The haj has been the scene of several stampedes and fires over the years, most recently in 2015, when a stampede during the ritual of “stoning of the devil” in Mina, near Mecca, caused the death of up to 2,300 people, the worst tragedy to date.
Source: Gestion
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