A man affected by the scorching heat on Sunday, 16 June 2024 is helped by a member of the Saudi security forces during the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca. Photo: Fadel Senna / AFP / Getty Images
A man affected by the scorching heat on Sunday, 16 June 2024 is helped by a member of the Saudi security forces during the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca. Photo: Fadel Senna / AFP / Getty Images

20 June 2024 (AFP) – The death toll from this year’s hajj has exceeded 1,000, with more than half of the victims unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

The new deaths reported on Thursday included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.

About 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once.

The hajj, whose timing is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, fell again this year during the oven-like Saudi summer.

The national meteorological centre reported a high of 51.8C (125F) this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

A Saudi study published last month said temperatures in the area were rising by 0.4C each decade.

Pilgrims using umbrellas for shade as they arrived at the base of Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the hajj. Photo: Fadel Senna / AFP / Getty Images
Pilgrims using umbrellas for shade as they arrived at the base of Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the hajj. Photo: Fadel Senna / AFP / Getty Images

Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims try to join the hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits.

Saudi authorities reported clearing hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca this month, but it appears many still participated in the main rites which began last Friday. This group was more vulnerable, because without official permits they could not access air-conditioned spaces provided for the 1.8 million authorised pilgrims to cool down.

“People were tired after being chased by security forces before Arafat day. They were exhausted,” one Arab diplomat said on Thursday about Saturday’s day-long outdoor prayers that marked the climax of the hajj.

The diplomat said the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims was the heat, which triggered complications related to high blood pressure and other problems. […]

A 2019 study by the journal Geophysical Research Letters said because of the climate crisis, heat stress for hajj pilgrims would exceed the “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052 and 2079 to 2086, “with increasing frequency and intensity as the century progresses”. [more]

More than 1,000 hajj pilgrims die amid temperatures approaching 52C in Mecca