Thursday that more than a thousand people died during this year’s Hajj, more than half of whom were unregistered pilgrims performing the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.
In addition to the new deaths reported on Thursday, an Arab diplomat told IHS Jane’s that there were 58 Egyptians who died in the violence. He provided a breakdown which showed that of the 658 deaths reported from Egypt, 630 were not registered.
In total, around 10 countries have reported the death of 1,081 pilgrims during their annual pilgrimages, one of Islam’s five pillars which must be completed by every Muslim who possesses the means to do so.
There has been a great deal of information provided to us as a result of official statements or by diplomats working on their countries’ responses.
A lunar Islamic calendar determines the timing of the Hajj and this year, as with many other years, it fell during a hot, humid Saudi summer similar to that of years past.
This week, the Grand Mosque in Mecca reported a high of 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit) earlier in the week, according to the national meteorological centre.
There has been evidence that the region is experiencing a climate change of 0.4°C every decade, according to a Saudi study published last month.
As a result of the increasingly difficult cost of official permits to participate in the Hajj, tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to undertake the pilgrimage through irregular channels each year.
In recent weeks, Saudi authorities have announced they have cleared hundreds of thousands of unauthorized pilgrims from Mecca. Despite this, it appears that many of these people have still participated in the main rites that began last Friday.
Those who were part of this group of pilgrims were more likely to suffer from the heat because, without official permits, they were unable to access the air-conditioned spaces set up by Saudi Arabia for the 1.8 million people permitted to enter the area to cool down after many hours of walking and praying outside.
One Arab diplomat told AFP on Thursday that a number of people were tired after being chased around by security forces prior to Arafat day. They were exhausted from being chased around,” the diplomat said about Saturday’s day-long outdoor prayers that marked the culmination of the Hajj.
It was the heat, the diplomat said, that was the major cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims, as high blood pressure and other issues were caused by complications associated with the heat.
There have been reports of fatalities in Egypt as well as Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, although the causes of these deaths are not always clear and some of them have been misattributed.
Pilgrims who are still unaccounted for have been searched for by their friends and family members.
Amid scorching temperatures, dozens of residents searched for news online and scoured hospitals for any news they could find on Wednesday.
While Saudi Arabia has not reported any deaths, it has reported that more than 2,700 people were affected by heat exhaustion on just Sunday alone, in which the country reported more than 2,700 deaths.
Timenews1 provided that news.
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