More than one million Muslims have converged in MECA to achieve the great annual pilgrimage, the authorities that promise a safer Hajj thanks to the measures to combat heat and a strengthening of unauthorized control of pilgrims. Temperatures must exceed 40 degrees this week, while this Wednesday, June 4, one of the largest religious manifestations in the world.
The Hajj, which extends for five to six days, mainly outdoors, is one of the five pillars of Islam. Any Muslim who has the media is required to achieve it at least once in his life. On Sunday, more than 1.4 million pilgrims had already arrived in Saudi Arabia, according to the authorities.
An overwhelming heat
On Monday, the Ministry of Health announced that 44 cases of stroke. In 2024, the thermometer had reached 51.8 ° C and more than 1,300 faithful had perished, according to official figures. This year, the rich Gulf monarchy mobilized more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials to try to mitigate heat -related risks.
The covered tickets have been extended for 50,000 square meters, thousands of additional rescuers and more than 400 fresh water points and thousands of fogs will be in service will be deployed, the Saudi minister of Hajj, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, told AFP.
Saudi authorities will also trust the latest artificial intelligence technologies to monitor trips and better manage flows, with the support of the data collected by a new fleet of drones deployed through the MECCA.
“We feel like that in peace”
Despite the overwhelming heat, the pilgrims express their happiness when they reach Mecca. “It is really a blessing,” Abdoul Majid Ati, lawyer and advisor in Sharia (Islamic Law) Filippin, near the great mosque that houses Kaaba, a black structure towards which Muslims resort to pray.
“We feel very at peace and security in this place,” he told AFP.
Abdul Hamid, from Nigeria, is “very happy” to achieve his second consecutive pilgrimage to only 27 years. But, he admits, temperatures in Mecca are “very, very, very high.”
Last year’s deaths illustrate the vulnerability of the faithful to the climatic extremes, after being the hottest year ever registered, according to the Copernician European Climate Observatory. According to the authorities, 83 % of the 1,301 pilgrims who died in 2024 were not equipped with an official permit, paying and granted according to the quotas, which gives access to a more appropriate infrastructure, such as the stores conditioned by the air.
The Saudi authorities “fell short, because the intensity of heat was so high that their adaptation measures failed,” Fahad Saeed in AFP Saeed of the Institute of Climate Analysis, based in Germany, to the AFP. This year, they launched a vast campaign against unauthorized pilgrims, multiplying police operations, surveillance and alert messages to prevent them from joining Mecca.
270,000 people, without license, repressed
The message is affected in the shopping centers, the exhibition panels and the media: “There is no Hajj without a license.” On Sunday, the Saudi authorities announced during a press conference that had repressed almost 270,000 people in the entrances to MECA due to the lack of license.
These permits are assigned to countries according to a quota system and are distributed through drawing. But its high cost pushes many faithful to opt for alternative routes, much cheaper but illegal. The phenomenon has worsened since Saudi Arabia has softened its visa policy to attract more tourists and investors.
At the same time, fines for illegal participation in the HAJJ doubled, reaching 20,000 rials (4,720 euros), and are accompanied by a prohibition of entering the kingdom for ten years. The management of the crowd also remains a great challenge. In 2015, a Joseling had left about 2,300 dead.
Saudi Arabia, which houses the most sacred sanctuaries of Islam in Mecca and Medina, earns billions of dollars every year thanks to Hajj and pilgrimages, known as OMRA, made at other times of the year. The Mariama, a 52 -year -old Senegalese, tells AFP that he has cried joy when he played Kaaba. “I dreamed of this moment, it was constantly thought that I was coming here to achieve the Hajj,” she says.
Source: BFM TV
