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CAIRO — More than 1,000 people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said Sunday.
More than half of the fatalities were people from Egypt, according to two officials in Cairo, where authorities said they had revoked the license of 16 travel agencies that helped unauthorized pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the deaths during the pilgrimage, which is required of every able Muslim once in their life.
The Egyptian government announced the death of 31 authorized pilgrims due to chronic diseases during this year’s Hajj, but didn’t offer an official tally for other pilgrims.
However, a Cabinet official said that at least 630 other pilgrims who traveled to Saudi Arabia on visit visas, with most of the dead at the morgue of the Emergency Complex in Mecca’s Al-Muaisem neighborhood. Confirming the tally, an Egyptian diplomat said most of the dead have been buried in Saudi Arabia.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists.
In its statement, the government said the 16 travel agencies failed to provide adequate services for pilgrims. It said these agencies illegally facilitated the travel of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia using visas that don’t allow holders to travel to Mecca.
The government also said officials from the companies have been referred to the public prosecutor for investigations.
The fatalities also included 165 pilgrims from Indonesia, 98 from India and dozens more from Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Malaysia, according to an Associated Press tally. Two U.S. pilgrims were also reported dead.
The AP could not independently confirm the causes of death. However, some countries like Jordan and Tunisia blamed the soaring heat.
Deaths are not uncommon at the Hajj, which has seen at times over 2 million people travel to Saudi Arabia for a five-day pilgrimage. The pilgrimage’s history has also seen deadly stampedes and epidemics.
But this year’s tally was significantly higher than usual.
During this year’s Hajj period, daily high temperatures ranged between 46 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) and 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Some people fainted while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is one of the world’s largest religious gatherings. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.
