Relatives search for missing people in Saudi Arabia, death toll from pilgrimage exceeds 900

AFP

Relatives search for missing pilgrims after deaths due to heat during Hajj

Friends and family of missing hajj pilgrims searched hospitals and pleaded online for news on Wednesday, fearing the worst after hundreds of people died during the annual rituals in Saudi Arabia. Arab diplomats told AFP on Tuesday that at least 550 pilgrims had died this year, the majority from heat-related illnesses, after temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. The total death toll so far stands at 645, according to a death toll compiled by AFP and released by various countries. About 1.8 million people took part in the pilgrimage. Mabrouka bint Salem Shushana from Tunisia, in her early 70s, has been missing since the peak of the pilgrimage at Mount Arafat on Saturday, her husband Mohammed told AFP on Wednesday. Because she was unregistered and did not have an official hajj permit, she did not have access to air-conditioned facilities that allow pilgrims to cool off after hours of prayers outdoors, Mohammed said. “She is an old woman. She was tired. She was so hot and had no place to sleep,” he said. “I have been looking for her in all the hospitals. Until now, I have no idea.” He is far from the only one desperately searching for information. Facebook and other social networks have been flooded with pictures of the missing woman and requests for information. Searchers include family and friends of Ghada Mahmoud Ahmed Dawood, an Egyptian pilgrim who has been missing since Saturday. “I received a call from her daughter in Egypt, begging me to post any post on Facebook that could help track her down or find her,” said a family friend in Saudi Arabia, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to anger Saudi authorities. “The good news is that we have not found her on the list of the dead so far, which gives us hope that she is still alive.” – Scorching heat – The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims with the means must perform it at least once. Its timing is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, and shifts forward each year in the Gregorian calendar. In recent years, the rituals, which are mainly held outdoors, have coincided with the sweltering Saudi summer. Temperatures in the region rise by 0.4 degrees Celsius every decade, according to a Saudi study published last month. The figure of 550 dead that diplomats cited on Tuesday came from the morgue of a hospital in Mecca’s Al-Muaisem district, one of the city’s largest. They include 323 Egyptians and 60 Jordanians, said the Arab diplomats who briefed AFP on the figures. One of them noted that almost all the Egyptians died “because of the heat.” Deaths have also been confirmed by Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, although authorities have not specified the cause of death in many cases. On Wednesday, an Asian diplomat told AFP there were “about 68 dead” from India and others were missing. “Some (died) of natural causes and we had many elderly pilgrims. And some are due to weather conditions, we assume,” he said. Saudi Arabia has not provided information on deaths, although it reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone. Last year, more than 200 dead pilgrims were reported, most of them from Indonesia. – ‘No news’ – Every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims try to perform the hajj through irregular channels because they cannot afford the often costly official permits. This has become easier since 2019, when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourist visa, said Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham. “Before, the only people who could do this were residents of the kingdom, and they know the situation,” he said. “For these people with tourist visas, it’s like they’re on the migrant route and have no idea what to expect.” Even pilgrims with official permits can be at risk, including Houria Ahmad Abdallah Sharif, a 70-year-old Egyptian Pilgrim missing since Saturday. After praying on Mount Arafat, she told a friend she wanted to go to a public toilet to clean her abaya, but she never came back. “We have been looking for her door to door and have not found her yet,” said the friend, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. “We know many who are still looking for their family members and relatives and cannot find them, or if they do find them, they find them dead,” the friend added.bur/th/dv