CAIRO (AP) — More than 1,000 people are dead. This year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia Authorities said Sunday that worshippers were facing extreme heat at Islam’s holiest sites in the desert kingdom.
More than half of the dead were Egyptians, two Cairo officials said. Egyptian authorities said they had revoked the licenses of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia He has not commented on the fatal accidents during the pilgrimage. It is required of every capable Muslim at least once in his life..
The Egyptian government said 31 official pilgrims died from chronic illnesses during this year’s Hajj, but did not provide an official tally for other pilgrims.
But a cabinet official said at least 630 Egyptians had died during the pilgrimage, most of them reported at an emergency medical facility in Mecca’s Al-Muaissem district. Confirming the figure, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead had been buried in Saudi Arabia.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.
Saudi Arabian authorities cracked down on unauthorized pilgrims, expelling tens of thousands, but some, many of them Egyptians, managed to reach the holy sites around Mecca, some on foot. Unlike the authorized pilgrims, they had no hotels to escape the scorching heat.
The government said in a statement that 16 travel agencies had not provided proper services to pilgrims and that they had illegally helped pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia using visas that were not permitted for travel to Mecca.
The government also said officials from the companies had been referred to prosecutors for investigation.
The dead include 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to an Associated Press tally. Two American pilgrims were also reported to have died.
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun as they arrive to throw stones at a pillar in the symbolic stoning of the devil, the final rite of the annual hajj, in Mina, near the Saudi holy city of Mecca, Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafic Maqbool)
The Associated Press could not independently verify the cause of death, but some countries, including Jordan and Tunisia, have blamed extreme heat.
An Associated Press reporter witnessed pilgrims fainting due to the scorching heat during the Hajj, especially on the second and third days. Some vomited and collapsed.
Deaths are common during the hajj, with more than two million people sometimes traveling to Saudi Arabia for the five-day pilgrimage, which has a history of deadly stampedes and epidemics.
But this year’s tally is unusually high, suggesting an exceptional situation.
In 2015, more than 2,400 pilgrims were killed in crowd stampedes in Mina during the Hajj.It was the worst incident during the pilgrimage, according to an Associated Press tally, and Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full death toll from the stampede. Another crane collapses at Mecca’s Grand Mosque Earlier that year, 111 people died.
The second deadliest Hajj incident was a crowd stampede in 1990 in which 1,426 people were killed.
During this year’s Hajj, daily highs in Mecca and in and around the holy sites ranged from 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Saudi Arabian National Meteorological Center. Some people fainted while attempting to perform the Hajj. The symbolic stoning of the Devil.
The Hajj, one of the five major Islamic festivals, is one of the largest religious celebrations in the world. According to Saudi Arabia’s Hajj authorities, more than 1.83 million Muslims will perform the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries and about 222,000 Saudi Arabian citizens and residents.
Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and security measures for those taking part in the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer numbers make it difficult to keep them safe.
Climate change could exacerbate the risk: 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 still take place in temperatures above “extreme danger thresholds” between 2047 and 2052 and between 2079 and 2086.
Because Islam follows a lunar calendar, the Hajj is moving forward by around 11 days each year. By 2029, the Hajj will take place in April, and in the following years it will take place in the winter, when temperatures are milder.
