Hundreds die from high temperatures during Muslim pilgrimage, reports say

This article was written by Pesha Magid and Saleh Salem, and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 20, 2024.

A member of the Saudi forces helps a man suffering from the heat on Sunday in Mina, near Mecca, during the Muslim pilgrimage of hajj.

Hundreds of visitors have died during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca amid scorching heat, according to press reports and foreign ministries.

At least 550 people have died on hajj, diplomats told French outlet Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Tuesday. Citing two Arab diplomats, AFP reported that 323 of the dead were Egyptians, most of whom perished owing to heat-related illness.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify those numbers.

Stampedes, tent fires and other accidents have caused hundreds of deaths during hajj to Saudi Arabia in the past 30 years. The pilgrimage began on Friday.

Saudi state TV said temperatures rose on Monday as high as 51.8 C in the shade at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

A 2024 study by the Journal of Travel and Medicine found that rising global temperatures may outpace strategies to deal with the heat. A 2019 study by Geophysical Research Letters said that as temperatures rise in arid

Saudi Arabia owing to climate change, pilgrims performing hajj will face “extreme danger.”

Thirty-five Tunisian citizens have died during the hajj, Tunisian news agency Tunis Afrique Presse said on Tuesday.

Many of those deaths were owing to extreme heat, family members said on social media, as other families continued to search for missing relatives in Saudi hospitals.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said it had issued 41 burial permits for Jordanian pilgrims on Tuesday. Earlier, the ministry said at least six Jordanian citizens died of heat stroke during the hajj.

Eleven Iranians have died and 24 were hospitalized during the pilgrimage, Iranian state news outlet IRINN said on Tuesday without giving the causes of death.

Three Senegalese citizens also died during hajj, Agence de Presse Sénégalaise said on Monday.

Indonesian Health Ministry data showed on Tuesday that 144 Indonesian citizens died during the pilgrimage. The data did not specify if any of the deaths were because of heat stroke.

The hajj is an annual pilgrimage that millions of Muslims make to Mecca to perform religious rites as taught by the Prophet Muhammad to his followers 14 centuries ago.

A Saudi health official, speaking to Reuters on Monday, before many of the reports of deaths were issued, said that authorities had not noticed any unusual fatalities among Muslim pilgrims amid the extremely high temperatures.

The ministry had so far treated more than 2,700 pilgrims who suffered from heat-related illness, he added.

Hajj, one of the largest mass gatherings in the world, is a once in-a-lifetime duty for able-bodied Muslims who can afford it. It ended on Wednesday.

More than 1.8 million pilgrims were expected to take part this year, according to the Saudi General Authority for Statistics.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”