AFP count: Death toll during Hajj after extreme heat exceeds 1,000

The death toll from this year’s hajj is over 1,000, according to an AFP count on Thursday. More than half of them were unregistered believers who made the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

Among the new deaths reported on Thursday were 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat. A breakdown shows that of the 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.

Around ten countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam that every Muslim with the means must complete at least once.

This year, the Hajj, which is scheduled according to the Islamic lunar calendar, once again fell during Saudi Arabia’s scorching hot season.

The National Meteorological Center reported a high of 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) at the Grand Mosque in Mecca this week.

According to a Saudi study published last month, temperatures in the region are rising by 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade.

Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to participate in the Hajj illegally because they cannot afford the often costly official permits.

Saudi authorities said they expelled hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca this month, but many of them apparently took part in the main rituals that began last Friday.

This group was particularly vulnerable because, without official permission, they had no access to the air-conditioned rooms available to the 1.8 million authorized pilgrims to cool down.

“People were tired after being chased by security forces ahead of Arafat Day. They were exhausted,” an Arab diplomat told AFP on Thursday about the all-day open-air prayers on Saturday that marked the climax of the hajj.

The diplomat said the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims is the heat, which causes complications related to high blood pressure and other problems.

Egyptian officials visited hospitals to gather information and provide medical care to Egyptian pilgrims, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

“However, there are a large number of Egyptian citizens who are not registered in the Hajj databases, which requires double the effort and longer time to search for missing persons and find their relatives,” it said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has ordered that a “crisis cell” led by the prime minister should continue to monitor the deaths of pilgrims in the country.

Sisi stressed “the need for immediate coordination with the Saudi authorities to facilitate the handover of the bodies and streamline the process,” his office said in a statement.

– Funerals begin –

Pakistan and Indonesia also confirmed further deaths on Thursday.

Of the approximately 150,000 pilgrims, 58 people have died in Pakistan so far, a diplomat told AFP.

“I think it’s quite natural given the crowds and the weather,” the diplomat said.

Indonesia, where around 240,000 pilgrims took part, increased the death toll to 183, according to the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs. The previous year there were 313 deaths.

Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq have also confirmed deaths. In many cases, authorities have not specified the cause of death.

Friends and relatives searched for missing pilgrims, raided hospitals and pleaded online for news, fearing the worst.

Two diplomats told AFP on Thursday that Saudi authorities had begun burying the deceased pilgrims. The bodies would be cleaned, wrapped in white shrouds and taken for burial.

“The funeral will be carried out by the Saudi authorities. They have their own system, so we just follow it,” said a diplomat, who said his country was trying to notify relatives as best it could.

The other diplomat said that given the high death toll, it was impossible to notify many families in advance, especially in Egypt, where so many people have died.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Saudi authorities had issued permits for the burial of 68 Jordanian pilgrims in Mecca.

Sixteen Jordanians remain missing and 22 are in hospital, including seven in critical condition, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

– “Extreme Danger” –

Saudi Arabia has not released any death toll figures, but reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat knot” on Sunday alone.

Last year, more than 300 deaths were reported during the Hajj in various countries, most of them among Indonesians.

The timing of Hajj moves back by about 11 days in the Gregorian calendar each year, meaning that next year it will take place earlier, in June, and possibly in cooler temperatures.

According to a 2019 study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, heat stress on Hajj pilgrims due to climate change will exceed the “threshold of extreme danger” in 2047-2052 and 2079-2086, “with increasing frequency and intensity throughout the century.”

Hosting the Hajj is a source of prestige for the Saudi royal family, and King Salman’s official title includes the words “Custodian of the Two Holy Sites” in Mecca and Medina.

Over the years, numerous disasters have occurred during the Hajj, the most recent of which occurred in 2015, when up to 2,300 people died in a stampede during the “stoning of the devil” ritual.

bur/srm