RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The deaths of 1,300 pilgrims during last year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia underscored the urgent need to reduce the risks posed by extreme heat, with crowd management an essential first step, analysts say.
Temperatures soared to 51.8 degrees Celsius in the holy city of Mecca last June as 1.8 million worshipers took part in the annual prayer, one of the five pillars of Islam.
Saudi officials said 83 percent of the 1,301 deaths recorded did not have official hajj permits and were therefore unable to access facilities meant to make the hajj more bearable, including air-conditioned tents.
It was a high-profile example of heat-induced catastrophe in 2024, which the Copernicus Climate Change Service said Friday was the hottest year on record.
The majority of pilgrims come from abroad, and diplomats involved in their countries’ response to last year’s crisis told AFP at the time that most of the deaths were caused by the heat.
Abdul Razzaq Bouchama of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah International Medical Research Center said that while Riyadh has not made detailed preparations for this year’s Hajj — still five months away — officials will undoubtedly want to avoid a repeat.
“I think above all they will reduce the risk of illegal pilgrims,” said Bouchama, who has worked with the Saudi government for more than three decades to reduce heat-related deaths. .
“I think they’ve learned their lesson, so we’ll have to see what kind of steps they take for that.”