The reported death toll from the scorching heat in Saudi Arabia surged past 900 hajj pilgrims on Wednesday, June 19, as friends and family searched for missing loved ones.
An Arab diplomat told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that deaths among Egyptians alone had jumped to “at least 600,” from more than 300 a day earlier, mostly from the unforgiving heat. That figure brought the total reported dead so far to 922, according to an AFP tally of figures released by various countries.
About 1.8 million people from all over the world, many old and infirm, took part in the days-long, mostly outdoor pilgrimage, held this year during the oven-like Saudi summer.
Relatives scoured hospitals and pleaded online for news, fearing the worst after temperatures hit 51.8°C in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, on Monday. Facebook and other social media networks have been flooded with pictures of the missing and requests for information.
Saudi Arabia has not provided information on fatalities, though it reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone.
In addition to Egypt, fatalities have also been confirmed by Jordan, Indonesia, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, though in many cases authorities have not specified the cause.
A second Arab diplomat told AFP on Wednesday that Jordanian officials were looking for 20 missing pilgrims, though 80 others who were initially reported missing were located in hospitals.
Temperatures rising each decade
An Asian diplomat told AFP there were “around 68 dead” from India and that others were missing.
“Some (died) because of natural causes and we had many old-age pilgrims. And some are due to the weather conditions, that’s what we assume,” he said.
The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims with the means must complete it at least once. Its timing is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, shifting forward each year in the Gregorian calendar. For the past several years the mainly outdoor rituals have fallen during the sweltering Saudi summer.
Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits. One of the Arab diplomats who spoke to AFP on Wednesday said many of the dead Egyptians were unregistered.
Source: Le Monde with AFP
