The death toll from this year’s hajj pilgrimage has topped 1,000 according to an AFP tally, as temperatures approach 52 degrees Celsius in a furnace-like Saudi Arabia.
New deaths reported yesterday included 58 from Egypt, bringing that country’s total to 658 deaths, 630 of whom were unregistered pilgrims according to an Arab diplomat’s breakdown of the figure.
About 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the hajj, which is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims with the means must complete at least once in their lives.
The timing of the hajj is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, which saw the pilgrimage fall this year during the intense Saudi summer. The Grand Mosque in Mecca saw a temperature of 51.8 degrees this week, according to the national meteorological centre.
AFP reports that every year, tens of thousands of pilgrims join the hajj irregularly as they cannot afford the expensive official permits. While the Saudi authorities reportedly cleared thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca ahead of the start of the pilgrimage, many managed to remain involved as the rites got underway.
Unregistered pilgrims are more vulnerable to the extreme temperatures as without permits, they cannot access the air-conditioned spaces provided for the nearly two million authorised pilgrims to provide respite from the sun.
The aforementioned Arab diplomat told AFP that the main cause of death among the Egyptian pilgrims was the heat, which was exacerbating other health issues such as high blood pressure for many.
Deaths have also been confirmed by Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
However, in many cases, authorities have not specified the cause of death.
Pakistan and Indonesia also confirmed further deaths yesterday, the former recording 58 deaths out of around 150,000 pilgrims, while the latter noted 183 deaths out of about 240,000 pilgrims.
Last year, Indonesia suffered 313 recorded deaths on the hajj.
