Hammadi El Soussi, the General Coordinator for Tunisian Health in the Holy Sites, confirmed the death of 35 Tunisian pilgrims in Mecca while performing the Hajj rituals. Additionally, 13 Tunisian pilgrims are currently hospitalized in Saudi Arabia.
In a press statement on Thursday, El Soussi explained, “Of the deceased pilgrims, 5 were part of the official lottery system, while the remaining 30 entered Saudi Arabia on tourist visas, and their numbers and whereabouts were not known to the Tunisian mission.”
He further stated that the Tunisian medical mission is collaborating with Saudi medical teams to provide diagnosis, treatment, and surgical procedures for their nationals currently admitted to Saudi hospitals.
El Soussi highlighted that the Tunisian Hajj mission lacks information on the number of pilgrims on tourist visas, their locations, or the agencies that facilitated their travel to Saudi Arabia.
This lack of oversight has led to increased cases of pilgrims being lost, who were forced to spend the entire day of Arafah in the sun without tents for shelter or transportation to Mina or a lunch meal.
He noted that the Tunisian medical mission successfully transported 100% of its pilgrims to Arafah under “good conditions” and had prepared three emergency centers in anticipation of heatstroke.
However, the extreme congestion, the temperature reaching 52 degrees Celsius on that day, and some pilgrims insisting on walking to Muzdalifah in adherence to tradition, led to deaths, heatstrokes, and cases of exhaustion and fainting.
