Saudi Arabia’s official news agency said 1,301 died during this year’s annual hajj pilgrimage in scorching temperatures. 83% of them would be people without authorization.
Saudi Arabia announced this Sunday, June 23, the death of 1,301 pilgrims during the great Muslim pilgrimage recently held in Saudi Arabia in scorching heat, specifying that most did not have authorizations for this annual gathering.
“Unfortunately, the death toll reached 1,301, 83% of whom were not allowed to perform the hajj. They had traveled long distances under the sun, without adequate shelter or comfort,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported SPA.
Six days of pilgrimage
Last week, an AFP count based on official statements or via diplomats involved in the search for victims put the number of victims at nearly 1,100.
Diplomats from Arab countries told AFP that 658 were Egyptians, including 630 without official authorization for the pilgrimage. A large number of deaths are due to heat. The hajj was held from June 14 to 19 in the west of the kingdom. Until Sunday, Riyadh had not publicly commented on the deaths or provided a toll.
On Friday, a senior Saudi official told AFP a partial toll of 577 deaths during the two most intense days of the hajj: June 15, when pilgrims gather for hours on Mount Arafat, and June 16. , when they participate in the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Mina.
The pilgrimage was “a success” according to a minister
This official defended the authorities’ reaction: “the State did not fail, but there was an error of assessment on the part of people who did not measure the risks.”
Saudi Health Minister Fahd Al-Jalajel on Sunday described the management of the great Muslim pilgrimage as a “success”, according to SPA. He said the health system had “provided more than 465,000 specialized treatment services, including 141,000 services to those who have not obtained official permission to perform the hajj”, according to the same source.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that every Muslim who can afford it must perform at least once in their life, at a period determined by the Muslim calendar, based on lunar cycles.
According to the authorities, 1.8 million pilgrims participated this year, most of them from abroad. The rituals took place again this year in very high temperatures, which reached 51.8 degrees Celsius at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city in western Saudi Arabia. .
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.
