“Regrettably, the number of mortalities reached 1,301.” The Saudi Press Agency used those words on Sunday to give the first official toll from this year’s Hajj, held in intense heat. It added that 83% of the dead were unauthorised to perform the pilgrimage and had walked long distances under direct sunlight, without adequate shelter or comfort.
Riyadh had said nothing publicly about the deaths until then. An Agence France-Presse tally the week before, drawn from diplomats’ statements, had already put the toll above 1,100. Arab diplomats told AFP that 658 of the dead were Egyptians, and 630 of those were unregistered pilgrims.
A senior Saudi official had given one earlier figure on Friday: 577 deaths across the two busiest days. On 15 June pilgrims spent hours praying in the blazing sun on Mount Arafat. The next day they carried out the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina.
Heat and permits
Temperatures in Mecca reached 51.8C (125.2F). For several years the mostly outdoor rituals have fallen in the Saudi summer.
Health Minister Fahd al-Jalajel called the year’s management of the Hajj “successful.” He also said, as The New York Times reported, that the rise in temperatures “represented a big challenge this year.” People without permits, he said, “walked long distances under the sun,” and he called that painful for everyone. His message for the dead: “May Allah forgive and have mercy on the deceased. Our heartfelt condolences go to their families.”
Saudi officials said 1.8 million pilgrims took part, about the same as last year, and 1.6 million of them came from abroad. Permits go to countries on a quota system and are handed to individuals by lottery. Costs run to thousands of dollars, and many people go without a permit anyway, risking arrest and deportation.
Egypt’s response
On Saturday Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered 16 tourism companies stripped of their licences and sent their managers to the public prosecutor. The cabinet said the rising number of dead unregistered Egyptians traced back to firms that ran Hajj programmes on personal visit visas, which do not let holders enter Mecca through official channels. Madbouly offered “sincere condolences and sympathy” to the families, CNN reported, and promised support.
An Indonesian pilgrim named Ahmed told CNN he saw no health workers or ambulances on the road. He described a body lying under a white ihram cloth every few hundred metres.
Last year 774 Indonesian pilgrims alone died, according to Pressenza. It was not clear whether this year’s toll is higher than usual, because Saudi Arabia does not publish such statistics regularly. The count could still grow as governments learn of unregistered pilgrims from their own countries.
Sources
- At least 1,300 hajj pilgrims died during extreme heat, Saudi Arabia says
- At Least 1,301 People Die During Mecca Hajj Pilgrimage in Intense Heat
