This year’s pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia is once again taking place amid scorching temperatures, resulting in mass deaths, ABC News reports.
Saudi diplomats specified that at least 323 of the dead were travellers from Egypt. The country’s foreign ministry said Cairo is co-operating with Saudi authorities in the search for Egyptians “missing” during the Hajj.
Diplomats explained that the reason for so many deaths was the huge number of unregistered pilgrims, whose arrival caused chaos in camps to help the faithful.
At least 60 pilgrims from Jordan also died. Tehran officially reported the deaths of five Iranian pilgrims without specifying the cause, while Dakar said three Senegalese pilgrims had died.
A diplomat confirmed that the death toll had risen due to the large number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims. An Egyptian official overseeing the Hajj mission in the country said:
“They caused great chaos in the pilgrims’ camps, which led to the cessation of services. Pilgrims went without food, water and air conditioning for a long time and died from the heat because most people had nowhere to take shelter.”
Illegal pilgrims
Earlier in June, Saudi officials said they had expelled hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca even before the Hajj. According to Saudi authorities, some 1.8 million pilgrims have taken part in the Hajj this year, including 1.6 million from abroad.
Saudi authorities reported as late as Sunday that they were providing aid to more than 2,000 pilgrims suffering from heat stress. On that day alone, they said more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” had been reported.
Last year’s Hajj also saw mass tragedy with at least 240 deaths recorded, most of whom were Indonesians.
The Hajj is a pilgrimage to the holy sites in Mecca in Saudi Arabia associated with the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Every Muslim, if he or she has the opportunity, should perform the Hajj.
