Officials say more than 1,000 pilgrims amid scorching heat died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia
UNB
Publish: 23 Jun 2024, 10:43 PM
CAIRO,
June 23 (AP/UNB) - More than 1,000 people died during this year's Hajj
pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at
Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Sunday.
More than half of the
fatalities were people from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo. Egypt
revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims
travel to Saudi Arabia, authorities said.
Saudi Arabia has not
commented on the deaths during the pilgrimage, which is required of every able
Muslim once in their life.
The Egyptian government
announced the death of 31 authorized pilgrims due to chronic diseases during
this year's Hajj, but didn't offer an official tally for other pilgrims.
However, a Cabinet
official said that at least 630 other Egyptians died during the pilgrimage,
with most reported at the Emergency Complex in Mecca's Al-Muaisem neighborhood.
Confirming the tally, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead have been buried
in Saudi Arabia.
The officials spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
Saudi authorities
cracked down on unauthorized pilgrims, expelling tens of thousands of people.
But many, mostly Egyptians, managed to reach holy sites in and around Mecca,
some on foot. Unlike authorized pilgrims, they had no hotels to escape from the
scorching heat.
In its statement, the
government said the 16 travel agencies failed to provide adequate services for
pilgrims. It said these agencies illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims
to Saudi Arabia using visas that don't allow holders to travel to Mecca.
The government also said
officials from the companies have been referred to the public prosecutor for
investigations.
The fatalities also
included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from
Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to an Associated
Press tally. Two U.S. pilgrims were also reported dead.
The AP could not
independently confirm the causes of death, but some countries like Jordan and
Tunisia blamed the soaring heat.
Associated Press
journalists saw pilgrims fainting from the scorching heat during the Hajj,
especially on the second and third days. Some vomited and collapsed.
Deaths are not uncommon
at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi
Arabia for a five-day pilgrimage. The pilgrimage's history has also seen deadly
stampedes and epidemics.
But this year's tally
was unusually high, suggesting exceptional circumstances.
A 2015 stampede in Mina
during the Hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident ever to
strike the pilgrimage, according to an AP count. Saudi Arabia has never
acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at
Mecca's Grand Mosque earlier the same year killed 111.
The second-deadliest
incident at the Hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.
During this year's Hajj
period, daily high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees
Fahrenheit) and 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred
sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for
Meteorology. Some people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning
of the devil.
The Hajj, one of the
five pillars of Islam, is one of the world's largest religious gatherings. More
than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6
million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents,
according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.
Saudi Arabia has spent
billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending
the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes
ensuring their safety difficult.
Climate change could
make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by experts at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the
worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures
exceeding an "extreme danger threshold" from 2047 to 2052, and from
2079 to 2086.
Islam follows a lunar
calendar, so the Hajj comes around 11 days earlier each year. By 2029, the Hajj
will occur in April, and for several years after that it will fall in the
winter, when temperatures are milder.