Hundreds of Muslims have died due to high temperatures during this year’s celebration of the main Muslim pilgrimage, which is destined for the Saudi city of Mecca, according to various media outlets from the countries of origin of the deceased and their respective ministries. of Foreign Affairs. Although there is still no official death toll, several sources have reported at least 550 deaths. The cause that explains most of these deaths is extreme heat; On Monday it reached 51.8 degrees in the shadow of the Great Mosque of Mecca. The Saudi General Statistics Authority estimates that 1.8 million people attended one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, which began last Friday and concludes this Wednesday.
A medical source told EFE, on condition of anonymity, that the Al Muaisem morgue, the largest in Mecca, already houses 550 bodies: “All the pilgrims died due to the heat, except for one person who was fatally injured. [durante una aglomeración]”, he detailed.
Of the deceased pilgrims, at least 325 are Egyptians, according to this source, to which 144 Indonesians are added, according to data published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Health of the Asian country, which did not specify whether any of these deaths were due to heat strokes. In addition, there are 60 victims of Jordanian nationality, according to Efe. Previously, the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had confirmed having issued 41 permits to bury citizens of the country who died in the Saudi city, at least six of them due to heatstroke, during the pilgrimage known to Muslims as Haj.
“The Haj is a difficult task, so you have to make an effort and perform the rituals, even in hot and crowded conditions,” said an Egyptian pilgrim on Sunday. This religious duty constitutes one of the five pillars of Islam, although it is only mandatory to carry it out at least once in a lifetime for the adult faithful, as long as they have the financial means – the average cost of the trip this year is 5,000 euros. and the physical and mental health to carry it out.
35 Tunisians have also perished, according to the official news agency of the Maghreb country, and at least 11 Iranians, as reported by the Islamic republic’s news agency IRNA. For her part, her counterpart in Senegal (APS) reported the death of three citizens of this African State.
The relatives of some of these victims, who have mourned their loss on social networks, confirmed that their loved ones had died from the heat. Other families continue to search for missing relatives in Saudi hospitals.
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A Saudi health official told Reuters on Monday that the country’s authorities had not recorded an unusually high death toll among pilgrims. However, the Saudi Ministry of Health did claim to have treated more than 2,700 pilgrims for symptoms related to high temperatures.
The authorities of that Arab country have warned pilgrims that they should hydrate and avoid being outdoors during the hottest hours, between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Some of the steps and rituals of this pilgrimage are carried out walking outdoors.
Stampedes and fires
In the last 30 years, hundreds of people have died during the massive pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city in Islam and birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, due to stampedes during religious events, tent fires or accidents such as collapse of a crane owned by Osama Bin Laden’s family emporium, which killed 110 pilgrims in 2015. Added to these causes, unrelated to meteorology, is the extreme heat of Saudi Arabia as a risk factor.
A 2019 study from the publication Geophysical Research Letters concluded that as temperatures rise due to global warming in arid Saudi Arabia, Haj pilgrims will face “extreme danger.”
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