More than 1,000 pilgrims died during the great Muslim pilgrimage held in Saudi Arabia in scorching heat, more than half of whom did not have permits for this annual gathering, according to an AFP count on Thursday.
A diplomat from an Arab country told AFP that 58 additional deaths had been recorded among Egyptian pilgrims, bringing to 658 the number of Egyptians who died during the hajj which took place from Friday to Monday.
According to him, 630 of them did not have official authorization for the pilgrimage, in which around 1.8 million people participated this year. A large number of deaths are due to the heat, diplomats said.
In total, 1,081 deaths were reported by around ten countries, officially or via diplomats involved in the search for victims.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and every Muslim who can afford it must do it at least once in their life at a time determined by the Muslim calendar, based on lunar cycles.
The rituals took place again this year under very high temperatures, which reached 51.8 ° C at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city in western Saudi Arabia .
Without license
Each year, tens of thousands of faithful attempt to participate in the pilgrimage without having the necessary permits, paid for and granted according to quotas, which give access in particular to air-conditioned facilities.
In early June, Saudi Arabia announced that its forces had turned back more than 300,000 unregistered pilgrims from Mecca, including 153,998 foreigners who entered the kingdom on tourist visas, without going through official channels.
However, it seems that a large number of unauthorized pilgrims managed to participate in the rituals which took place over several days, in particularly trying conditions.
“People were tired of being chased by security forces before the day of [rituel au mont] Arafat” on Saturday, “they were exhausted,” an Arab diplomat who requested anonymity told AFP on Thursday.
He said heat was the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims, including complications from high blood pressure.
Egyptian officials visited hospitals to try to obtain information on the missing Egyptians and help the injured in hospital, according to a Foreign Affairs statement. But “a large number” of these nationals “are not registered in the hajj databases” which makes their work difficult.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the formation of a “crisis cell” led by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli to ensure “coordination with the Saudi authorities and repatriate the bodies” of the dead pilgrims.
“Extreme danger threshold”
In addition to Egypt, new deaths were confirmed by Pakistan and Indonesia.
Of around 150,000 pilgrims, Pakistan has recorded 58 deaths so far, according to a diplomat.
Indonesia, which had around 240,000 pilgrims, reported a new death toll of 183, compared to 313 last year.
Deaths have also been confirmed by Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan and Iraqi Kurdistan, although their causes have not yet been announced.
Many people were still searching for news of missing pilgrims in hospitals or through social media.
According to two diplomats, Saudi authorities, who have not provided information on the deaths, have begun steps to bury the bodies.
They claimed to have treated more than 2,700 pilgrims suffering from heat stress on Sunday alone.
Last year, countries reported more than 300 deaths during the hajj, mostly Indonesians.
The date of the hajj advances by approximately 11 days each year in the Gregorian calendar.
But with climate change, the heat stress of pilgrims will exceed the “extreme danger threshold” between 2047 and 2052 and from 2079 to 2086, “with increasing frequency and intensity as the century advances”, according to a study published in 2019 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.