More than half a thousand pilgrims died during the Hajj to Mecca
Kyiv • UNN
At least 550 pilgrims have died during this year's grueling Hajj pilgrimage, with most of the deaths attributed to heat-related illnesses exacerbated by hot weather and climate change in the region.
At least 550 pilgrims have died during the Hajj, according to diplomas, which underscores the grueling nature of the pilgrimage, which was held again this year in hot temperatures, UNN writes citing AFP.
Details
At least 323 of the dead were Egyptians, most of whom died of heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats who coordinated their countries' response told the agency on Tuesday.
"All of them (Egyptians) died because of the heat," except for one who was fatally wounded during a minor crowd stampede, one diplomat said, adding that the total figures were obtained from a hospital morgue in the Al-Muaysem neighborhood of Mecca.
According to the diplomats, at least 60 Jordanians were also killed, compared to the official number of 41 people given earlier on Tuesday in Amman.
According to AFP, the new deaths have brought the total number of deaths registered in many countries to 577.
Diplomats reported that the total number of dead in the Al-Muaysem morgue, one of the largest in Mecca, was 550.
The pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate change, according to a Saudi study published last month, which said that the temperature in the area where the rituals are held is rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade.
According to the Saudi National Meteorological Center, on Monday, the temperature at the Grand Mosque in Mecca reached 51.8 degrees Celsius.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that Cairo is cooperating with Saudi authorities in operations to find Egyptians who went missing during the Hajj. The ministry's statement referred to "a certain number of deaths" but did not specify whether any Egyptians were among the dead.
The Saudi authorities reported treating more than 2,000 pilgrims suffering from heat stress, but have not updated this figure since Sunday and have not provided information about the dead.
According to reports from various countries, at least 240 pilgrims died last year, most of them Indonesians.
The Saudi authorities advised pilgrims to use umbrellas, drink plenty of water, and avoid sun exposure during the hottest hours of the day.
However, many Hajj rituals, including the prayers on Mount Arafat that took place on Saturday, involve spending many hours outdoors during the day.
Some pilgrims said they saw motionless bodies on the side of the road and ambulances that sometimes seemed overloaded.
According to the Saudi authorities, about 1.8 million pilgrims took part in the Hajj this year, including 1.6 million from abroad.
Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims try to perform the hajj through illegal channels because they cannot afford the often expensive procedures for obtaining official hajj visas.
This puts these illegal pilgrims at risk, as they cannot access the air-conditioned facilities provided by the Saudi authorities along the Hajj route.
One diplomat who spoke to AFP on Tuesday said the death toll in Egypt had "absolutely" risen due to the large number of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims.
Earlier this month, Saudi officials said they had expelled hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca before the hajj.
Other countries reporting Hajj deaths this year include Indonesia, Iran, and Senegal. Most countries did not specify how many deaths were heat-related.
Saudi Health Minister Fahd bin Abdul Rahman Al-Jalajel said on Tuesday that health plans for the Hajj "have been successfully implemented," preventing major disease outbreaks and other public health threats, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
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The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims who have the means must perform it at least once.
