The way to Jamaraat Bridge (2011) | |
Date | 24 September 2015 |
---|---|
Time | 09:00 AST (UTC+03:00) |
Location | Mina, Mecca, Saudi Arabia |
Coordinates | 21°24′59.5″N39°53′04.9″E / 21.416528°N 39.884694°E |
Cause | Disputed |
Deaths | Estimates: 2,411 (AP) [1] 2,070 (Reuters) [2] 2,236 (AFP) [3] 2,431 (Total/National) 769 (Saudi government) [1] [4] |
On 24 September 2015, a fatal crowd crush resulted in the death of more than 2,000 individuals, many of whom were suffocated or crushed, during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Mina, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, making it the deadliest Hajj disaster in history. [5] [6] [7] Estimates of the number of dead vary: the Associated Press reported 2,411 [update] dead, [1] [8] while Agence France-Presse reported 2,236 [update] killed. [3] Based on the total of the individual national reports cited in the table below (nationalities of victims), at least 2,431 [update] people died. [note 1] The government of Saudi Arabia officially reported two days after the event that there had been 769 deaths and 934 injured. [1] [9] [10] These figures remained official at the time of the next year's Hajj and were never updated. [4] The largest number of victims were from Iran, followed by Mali and Nigeria. [11]
The crush occurred in Mina at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 leading to Jamaraat Bridge. [12] The cause of the disaster remains in dispute. [13] [14] The Mina disaster inflamed tensions between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which were already elevated due to the wider turmoil in the Middle East, such as the Syrian Civil War and Yemeni Civil War. [15] [16] [17] In a press conference held on the day of the incident, Saudi Ministry of Interior spokesman Mansour Al-Turki attempted to address most issues regarding the incident. He said in September 2015 that an investigation was ongoing, and that the exact cause of the overcrowding that resulted in the deadly crush had not yet been ascertained. [18] [19]
The Hajj is an annual pilgrimage in Mecca prescribed as a duty for Muslims to perform at least once during their lifetime if they can afford to do so physically and financially. [20] [21] As traditionally performed, the Hajj consists of a series of rites including the Stoning of the Devil (Arabic : رمي الجمراتramī al-jamarāt) [22] [23] which is done at the Jamaraat Bridge in Mina, a district a few miles east of Mecca. The Jamaraat Bridge is a pedestrian bridge from which pilgrims can throw pebbles at the three jamrah ("pebble") pillars. The stoning ritual is the last major ritual and the part of the Hajj with the most potential for disaster given its large crowds, confined spaces, and precise scheduling. [24] [25]
The 2015 Hajj occurred during a time of regional turmoil (including wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya), the highest temperatures in Mecca in 20 years, the threat of MERS, [26] and pre-existing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. [27]
A number of Hajj-related crowd crush disasters have occurred in the past, [28] with 1,426 people being suffocated and trampled to death in a 1990 tunnel tragedy, and at least 701 people killed in crowd crushes between 1991 and 2005. [29] 346 people were killed in a similar Jamaraat incident in 2006, which prompted the Saudi government to improve the infrastructure of the city and its procession routes. [30]
The Saudi Arabian government has been spending $60 billion to expand the Grand Mosque which houses the Kaaba, and has deployed 100,000 security forces and 5,000 CCTV cameras to monitor the crowds. [31] The Saudis have also built a permanent tent city in the Mina valley. It is covered with approximately 160,000 air-conditioned tents across multiple campsites (grouped by nationality) for use by Hajj pilgrims. [32]
Nationality | Dead | Missing | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | 2 | 6 | [33] |
![]() | 46 | 3 | [34] |
![]() | 137 | 53 | [35] |
![]() | 52 | 41 | [36] |
![]() | 22 | 7 | [37] |
![]() | 1 | 6 | [38] |
![]() | 106 | 28 | [39] [40] |
![]() | 52 | 50 | [41] |
![]() | 4 | 0 | [42] |
![]() | 2 | 3 | [43] |
![]() | 190 | 45 | [44] [45] |
![]() | 53 | 0 | [46] |
![]() | 2 | 0 | [47] |
![]() | 17 | 17 | [48] |
![]() | 114 | 10 | [49] |
![]() | 129 | 0 | [50] |
![]() | 464 | 0 | [51] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [52] |
![]() | 52 | 7 | [53] |
![]() | 2 | 1 | [54] |
![]() | 12 | 0 | [55] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [56] |
![]() | 10 | 7 | [57] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [58] |
![]() | 312 | 34 | [59] [60] |
![]() | 5 | 0 | [61] |
![]() | 42 | 1 | [62] |
![]() | 6 | 5 | [63] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [64] |
![]() | 78 | 41 | [65] |
![]() | 274 | 43 | [66] [67] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [68] |
![]() | 83 | 7 | [69] [70] |
![]() | 1 | 0 | [71] |
![]() | 62 | 0 | [72] [73] |
![]() | 8 | 0 | [64] |
![]() | 1 | 1 | [74] |
![]() | 30 | 2 | [75] |
![]() | 32 | 7 | [76] |
![]() | 15 | 0 | [77] |
![]() | 7 | 0 | [78] |
![]() | 1 | 2 | [79] |
Total | 2,431 | 427 | |
According to a statement by the Saudi civil defence directorate, the stampede occurred Thursday 24 September 2015 at 09:00 Mecca time (06:00 UTC) at the junction between street 204 and 223 as pilgrims were en route to the Jamaraat Bridge. The Saudi Interior Ministry stated that the stampede began when two large groups of pilgrims intersected from different directions onto the same street. [30] The area was not identified previously as dangerous. [80] The junction lay between two pilgrim camp sites. [81] The International Business Times reported that the governor of Mecca Province and Saudi Arabia's director of the main Hajj committee, Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, blamed the crush outside the holy city on "some pilgrims with African nationalities"; [82] prompting condemnation from several African government officials. [83]
In a press conference held the day of the incident, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Mansour Al-Turki attempted to address the incident. He said that an investigation was ongoing, that the exact causes for crowding that resulted in the deadly stampede on Mina Street 204 are yet to be ascertained. [18] [19] He explained that "Street number 204 is a road leading from the camps to the Jamarat Bridge. What happened was that a group of pilgrims on buses were allowed to descend onto the pathways that lead to the Jamarat Bridge at a time that wasn’t allocated to them," Al Arabiya News Channel's correspondent in Mina, Saad Al-Matrafi said. "As they neared the area, they converged with an existing group of people who were already in the area, which pushed the area to over capacity." [84]
One day after the Mina crush disaster, [85] Saudi media publicized a statement by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Sheikh, exonerating Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef (known as "MBN") from responsibility for the disaster, as his title of Minister of the Interior holds him accountable for safety issues at the Mecca shrine. The Grand Mufti's statement, which characterized the incident as "beyond human control", "inevitable", and attributable to "fate", [85] immunized MBN against possible domestic criticism. [86]
The exact casualty total for the Mina crowd collapse is disputed. The Saudi government officially reported 769 [update] deaths, [1] a number that was not changed, while Iranian media sources have proposed totals as great as 4,173, after a withdrawn early number given by Saudi authorities. [87] [88] [89] Independent estimates range between 2,236 [update] [3] and 2,431 [update] (see nationalities of victims table) people killed, with the most recent Associated Press estimate giving a death toll of 2,411 [update] , based on "media reports and officials comments from 36 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj". [1]
Estimates of the injured and missing also vary greatly; Saudi reports claim 934 injured; [9] Iranian reports are much higher, estimating more than 2,000 injuries. [90] On the day of the disaster, the Saudi Civil Defence directorate stated that casualties were of multiple nationalities and announced the deployment of 4,000 personnel to the stampede site alongside 220 emergency response units. [81] Pilgrims were redirected away from the stampede site, [18] and the Saudi Red Crescent Authority was mobilised. [30] Medics at Mina's emergency hospital said they alone received almost 700 people on the day of the incident. The eight hospitals around the Hajj landmarks and the six main hospitals in the city of Mecca were operating at full capacity after the stampede, medics said. [91]
By 2 October 2015, the Saudi Arabia Health Ministry stated they had completed the DNA profiling of all unidentified pilgrims who were killed or injured in the crush. [92] DNA samples of the next of kin of Hajj stampede victims were collected at Al-Nour Specialist Hospital, Mecca. [93]
Other prominent victims included:
Early statements by eyewitnesses indicated that the crush was caused by the closure of the eastern part of Street 206, which forced pilgrims to travel on Street 223, colliding with a mass of people moving the opposite direction on Street 204. [116]
Alhaji Samaila Dabai Yombe, Deputy Governor of the Nigerian state of Kebbi, who was present at the incident, stated that the deaths happened due to a blockage of the route to Jamaraat Bridge. "What actually happened was that all the pilgrims scheduled to throw Jamrat at that time were channeled to one particular street. At a time we got to a certain point around 8:00 a.m., a military vehicle was set across to create a barrier and then some of the Saudi soldiers were standing by, suggesting that you cannot go beyond that point. [...] About 5,000 people coming from the same direction were not aware of the road block in front, which resulted to a tight and stationary human traffic, which made it very difficult for us to even stand. So, we continued to squat to make room for fresh air while the temperature was about 47 degrees Celsius. [...] Pilgrims, in efforts to get fresh air, attempted to scale fences of tents on both sides of the road. Very few succeeded, while most people just succumb to the situation. It was at this juncture that we saw dead bodies piling up around us". [117]
Ishaq Akintola, a Nigerian Professor of Islamic eschatology, gave an eyewitness account of the disaster: "on that fateful day, we found out that some of those who had thrown their own stones made a U-turn instead of moving ahead to take a detour. They came through the route meant for entrance and not exit. They came towards us. They were in a very large group and the road was not spacious enough to allow a free flow of those of us coming to throw stones at the Devil and those who had stoned the Devil. The road could not take those coming and those going. And I discovered that most of those who took the wrong way were Egyptians [...] as I heard them speak the Egyptian dialect of Arabic. [...] I studied in Egypt for five years. I know the dialect". [118]
In a statement released by the Saudi embassy, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir stated, "The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has directed to launch a thorough investigation that will be transparent [...] We will reveal the facts when they emerge, and we will not hold anything back. If mistakes were made, those who made them will be held accountable, and we will make sure that we will learn from this in order to ensure that it doesn't happen again." [119] A few weeks after the incident, the Saudi Vice Minister of Health officially announced 4,173 people dead in this incident in a press release, [88] [87] however, this page was removed from the website within three hours and requesting it would redirect the visitor to the homepage. The Saudi Minister of Health claimed that the published death toll was false in a Twitter post. [120] Fars News, an official news agency of Iran, provided a walkthrough video to accessing the webpage assuming it was out of reach due to many page requests. [89]
Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef supervised the official investigation. Saudi newspapers reported that on 18 October 2015 bin Nayef talked to the investigators and urged them to "continue their efforts to find the causes of the accident, praying to Allah Almighty to accept the martyrs and wishing the injured a speedy recovery". However, Saudi Arabia, as of October 2015 [update] , has not yet released any findings by their investigators. [121] [ needs update ]
Prompted by difficulties in identifying bodies after the Mina disaster, Saudi Arabian Deputy Minister of Health, Hamad Al-Duwailie, announced plans to require all Hajj pilgrims to wear an electronic bracelet containing identity information. Al-Duwailie also said that Saudi Ministry of Health would upgrade its current Hajj and Umrah committee a permanent coordinating body within the Ministry. [122] In January 2016, the Saudi Shura Council recommended "raising the capacity of roads leading to the Jamarat facility, and to the accommodation areas in Mina" as well as more studies on Hajj-related transportation flow. [123]
Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations at the University of Southern California, who is an expert in accident investigation, recommended in a self-authored opinion piece in the World Post that, "the Saudi government should embark on the immediate creation of an independent investigation commission/panel. This interdisciplinary commission/panel should be chaired by a nationally renowned Saudi statesman or scholar, with members selected from Saudi Arabia and affected countries based on their technical expertise and to include responsible governmental entities, first responder agencies, and academics of requisite disciplines for accident investigation. [...] And it should be empowered by the subpoena power and charged to conduct a comprehensive, systematic and interdisciplinary investigation by employing the system-oriented, robust 'AcciMap' methodology to write the most technically-sound report on the root-causes of this tragedy". [124]
Amer Shalaby is a Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto's Transportation Research Institute, former Hajj pilgrim, and consultant to Saudi government on crowd management. Shalaby, who specializes in transportation planning for large-scale events, proposes using "smart phones and other static and dynamic sensors" to provide authorities real-time information that could identify potential trouble places during the Hajj. He also suggests that "some of the effective methods of highway traffic flow management, such as flow metering, could be adapted for streamlining crowd flows in Mecca". [125]
Keith Still, Professor of Crowd Science at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain, who helped redesign the Jamaraat (the pillars representing the devil stoned by pilgrims) after a disaster in 2004, said there was criticism at the time that the upgrades at the Jamaraat had not been extended to other areas. He said "For complex systems that flow in and out, if you make one change along the way it can have knock-on and ripple effects elsewhere. Change any one part of system with 3 million people, and there's a danger of an accident like this." [80]
Mohammed Ajmal, a physician specializing in Emergency Medicine and former manager of a medical center established to treat Indian Hajj pilgrims, details issues with both the design of the Mina tent city and quick access to disaster medical care at the site. Ajmal discussed structural design flaws in Mina, calling it a "badly designed death trap—in times of disaster" as it attempts to funnel tens of thousands of people through T intersections, such as the junction of Streets 204 and 223 where the crush occurred. Compression asphyxia is the cause of death for most victims of a crowd collapse, and can occur within ten minutes; Ajmal notes that Mina's design prevents medical care from arriving within that time stating that people at crush sites are "destined to die" within minutes, before any medical help can reach the site. [126]
After the Mina disaster, many of the world's politicians sent messages of sympathy and consolation, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Qatari Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain, and Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi. [127]
Lebanon-based Arabic-language daily Ad-Diyar reported that a convoy escorting Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince and Saudi Minister of Defense, composed of 200 soldiers and 150 police officers initiated the disaster by blocking a street forcing pilgrims to turn around against the flow of traffic. The paper also alleged that the deputy crown prince and entourage swiftly left the scene, and that the Saudi authorities sought to impose a media blackout on reporting the Prince's presence in the area. [178]
Iranian media reported the Ad-Diyar story, [179] and Iranian Hajj officials stated that two streets near the disaster point had been sealed for "unknown reasons", [180] while the Iranian Fars News Agency, quoted a member of the Iraqi parliament, Hassan Salem, as saying "the Mina disaster was an engineered tragedy to kidnap the Iraqi and Iranian officials on the pretext of the Mina incident." [181] A reporter with the BBC's Hausa Service, Yusuf Ibrahim Yakasai, confirmed that at least one road leading to the Jamaraat was blocked. [182] Saudi officials denied the reports, [64] stating diplomatic convoys take place in the south of Mina and in tunnels, while the incident took place in the north. [183]
The Saudi government was reported to have beheaded 28 people found responsible for the disaster. [184] [ dubious – discuss ]
Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the Saudis of killing injured pilgrims by putting them in containers along with the dead. [185]
The 2015 Mina Crush disaster has increased tensions in the already-strained relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran, [17] [64] [155] [186] led to calls from politicians in a number of Muslim nations for changes in oversight of Mecca and the Hajj, [163] [187] [188] and bolstered opposition to King Salman among the senior members of the Saudi Arabian royal family. [189] [190]
Politicians and religious leaders in a number of Muslim countries have cited the 2015 Mina Crush disaster as reason for control of the Hajj be given either to a different nation or to a pan-Islamic organization. [187] Mehmet Ali Sahin Deputy Chair of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) criticised the Saudi organisation, and claimed that Turkey could do a better job than Saudi Arabia at organising the Hajj pilgrimage, calling for Turkey to be entrusted with its management. [163] Nouri al-Maliki, former Prime Minister of Iraq, proposed that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should take over administration of the Hajj. [191] Mohammad Emami Kashani, an Iranian Ayatollah, also demanded transfer of the control of the Hajj to the OIC, [192] stating "Saudi Arabia is incapable of organising the pilgrimage. The running of the Hajj must be handed over to Islamic states." [193] Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah stated that Saudi Arabia should allow Muslim countries to help the kingdom run the Hajj pilgrimage rituals, emphasising the need for the formation of a Muslim committee to "supervise the management" of the annual Islamic event.[ citation needed ] The Saudi government rejected such calls; Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal stated Saudi control over the Hajj was "a matter of sovereignty and privilege and service". [188]
In 2016, supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sent a global message via his website severely criticizing Saudi rulers [194] [195] [196] for what he called "the crimes they have caused throughout the world of Islam," [197] and asked they be held responsible. [198] In his message Khamenei described the nature of Saudi rulers as "blasphemous, faithless, dependent and materialistic," and asked "the world of Islam" to know them. [199] He demanded reconsidering the management of two holy places and the issue of hajj due to what he described as "Saudi rulers' oppressive behavior towards God's guests," referring to 2015 Mina disaster. [200] [197] "Otherwise Muslims would face biggest problems," he warned. [195] [196] "The hesitation and failure to rescue the half-dead and injured people... is also obvious and incontrovertible. ... They murdered them," he said. [201]
Government and religious leaders of Iran—which lost at least 464 citizens [202] in the Mina disaster—have been harshly critical of Saudi Arabia. [17] Saudi leaders have in turn have claimed that Iran is attempting to take advantage of a tragedy for political purposes. [155] [203]
Soon after the Mina Crush, both Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, had harsh words for the Saudi government and blamed Saudi Arabia for the disaster. [204] Rouhani suggested that the Mina crush could be the result of the Saudi government moving their best troops to Yemen, and leaving Hajj crowd control to less experienced soldiers. [205] While Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's then State Prosecutor claimed the disaster had been caused by the Saudi officials blocking a road so as to clear a path for a Saudi convoy, and that the House of Saud should be held responsible by international law. [186] [203] Iranian legal experts later decided that Iran could not bring such a case before the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court due to jurisdictional issues. [206] Iranian officials also accused Saudi Arabia with kidnapping Iranian diplomat, Ghazanfar Roknabadi, who became missing during the Hajj, until his body was finally identified on 25 November 2015. [94] [207] On 24 November 2015, Iran announced that it was forming its own fact-finding committee to investigate the disaster. [208] Iran claims that the death toll of the disaster greatly exceeds what has been reported, and that between 4,700 and 7,500 pilgrims actually died. [208] [209] On 4 January 2016, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht stated that Iran would be suspending participation by its nationals in the Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca, as "conditions of safety will not be guaranteed to pilgrims". [210] [211]
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir has urged Iran to wait for the results of the official Saudi investigation, stating that the Saudi government, "will reveal the facts when they emerge. And we will not hold anything back. If mistakes were made, who made them will be held accountable." [203] Saudi government officials have made few official comments addressing specific Iranian allegations, while attempting to de-escaltate tensions with Iran. [204] However, Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to the UK, did specifically deny what he called "unfounded allegations", including accusations that a road blockage by a Saudi royal convoy caused the disaster. [212] Additionally, an anonymous Saudi official involved with management of the Hajj suggested to a reporter for Al-Monitor that Mina disaster might be the result of Iranian sabotage, and that the Iranian Hajj Mission was being investigated. [204]
Amid deteriorating diplomatic relations and after months of negotiations concerning visa requirements and safety logistics, in May 2016 Iran suspended participation with the upcoming Hajj scheduled for September 2016. [213] Iran previously suspended participation with the Hajj of 1988 and 1989, after 400 Iranian pilgrims were killed by Saudi security forces. [213]
The Mina disaster increased and emboldened opposition to Saudi King Salman. The Guardian reported after the disaster that a "senior Saudi prince has launched an unprecedented call for change in the country's leadership" writing two letters calling for his replacement. [189] The prince was quoted by the Guardian as saying "The public are also pushing this very hard, all kinds of people, tribal leaders [...] They say you have to do this or the country will go to disaster." [189] According to reports, favored to replace Salman is his younger brother, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, another son of Saudi Arabia's founding king Ibn Saud, and former Interior Minister. [190]
The likelihood of such a coup, at least in the short term, [214] and the authenticity of the prince's letter, have both been questioned. [215] However, structural economic problems, the Yemen War, and discord in the royal family all contribute to the real possibility of instability for Saudi Arabia. [189] [214] [216] But as the holder of the royal title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques", King Salman has been embarrassed by the twin disasters that bracketed the 2015 Hajj season—the Mecca crane collapse and the Mina Crush. [215]
Some academics who study crowd movements and crushing disasters have questioned the use of the term "stampede". [29] "The rhetoric of 'stampede' is often used to imply that the crowd is animalistic or mindless, but from a crowd psychology point of view, I'm sure that there was a logical explanation for the crush", University of Sussex crowd behavioral expert Anne Templeton told Newsweek. "The density of the Hajj has been shown to reach up to 6–8 people per square meter, so I would be very surprised if a stampede (implying people running mindlessly) could occur in the first place". [217]
The academics argue that the Mina disaster is better described as a "progressive crowd collapse": [29] [217] beginning at densities of about six [29] to seven [218] persons per square meter, individuals are pressed so closely against each other they are unable to move as individuals, and shockwaves can travel through a crowd which, at such densities, behaves somewhat like a fluid. [218] If a single person falls, or other people reach down to help, waves of bodies can be involuntarily precipitated forward into the open space. [29] One such shockwave can create other openings in the crowd nearby, precipitating further crushing. [29] Unable to draw breath, people in a crowd can also be crushed while standing. [218]
Use of the word "stampede", says Edwin Galea of the University of Greenwich, is the result of "pure ignorance and laziness ... it gives the impression that it was a mindless crowd only caring about themselves, and they were prepared to crush people." [29] In reality, "people are only directly crushed by others who have no choice, and the people who can choose ... are too far away from the epicentre" to be aware of what is happening. [29] According to experts, true "stampedes" (and "panics") rarely occur except when a crowd is fleeing in fear, such as from a fire, [218] and rarely does trampling by other human beings in such "stampede" conditions result in fatal injuries. [29]
"If you look at the analysis, I’ve not seen any instances of the cause of mass fatalities being a stampede," says Keith Still, professor of crowd science at Manchester Metropolitan University. "People don't die because they panic. They panic because they are dying." [29]
Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city according to Islam. It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 2,385,509 in 2022. Its metropolitan population in 2022 was 2.4 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Around 44.5% of the population are Saudi citizens and around 55.5% are foreigners from other Muslim countries. Pilgrims more than triple the population number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah. With over 10.8 million international visitors in 2023, Mecca was one of the ten most visited cities in the world.
The Stoning of the Devil is part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. During the ritual, Muslim pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls, called jamarāt, in the city of Mina just east of Mecca. It is a symbolic reenactment of Ibrahim's hajj, where he stoned three pillars representing the Shaitan, and Muslims' temptation to disobey the will of Allah.
On 31 July 1987, during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, a clash between Shia pilgrim demonstrators and the Saudi Arabian security forces resulted in the death of more than 400 people. The event has been variously described as a "riot" or a "massacre". It developed from increasing tensions between Shia Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Since 1981, Iranian pilgrims have held a political demonstration against Israel and the United States every year at Hajj, but in 1987, a cordon of Saudi police and the Saudi Arabian National Guard sealed part of the planned demonstration route, resulting in a confrontation between them and the pilgrims. This escalated into a violent clash, followed by a deadly stampede.
There have been numerous incidents during the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the cities of Mecca and Medina, that have caused loss of life. Every follower of Islam is required to visit Mecca and Medina during the Hajj at least once in their lifetime, if able to do so; according to Islam, the pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. During the month of the Hajj, Mecca and Medina must cope with as many as three million pilgrims.
The 2006 Hajj stampedeor crush resulted in the deaths of 363 pilgrims on 12 January 2006 during the Hajj in Mecca. It took place on Jamaraat Bridge around 1pm on 12 January 2006, the fifth and final day of the Hajj. Between two and three million pilgrims attended the Hajj in 2006. Earlier, on 5 January at least 76 pilgrims died when a hostel collapsed in Mecca.
Mina, also known as Muna, and commonly known as the "City of the Tents" is a valley located 8 kilometres southeast of the city of Mecca, in the district of Masha'er, Province of Makkah in the Hejazi region Saudi Arabia. Covering an area of approximately 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi), Mina incorporates the tents, the area of Jamarat, and the slaughterhouses just outside the tents.
The Jamaraat Bridge is a pedestrian bridge in Mina, Saudi Arabia, near Makkah used by Muslims during the Hajj ritual Stoning of the Devil. The purpose of the bridge is to enable pilgrims to throw stones at the three jamrah pillars either from the ground level or from the bridge. Jamaraat is the plural of jamraah, the Arabic term for each of the pillars involved in the stoning ritual. It literally means a small piece of stone or a pebble.
Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh is a Saudi Arabian scholar who is the current Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. As such he is head of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars and its sub-committee, the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Issuing Fatwas.
Bilateral relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been strained over several geopolitical issues, such as aspirations for regional leadership, oil export policy and relations with the United States and other Western countries. Diplomatic relations were suspended from 1987 to 1990, and in 2016 for seven years following certain issues like the intervention in Yemen, Iran embassy bombing in Yemen, incidents in 2015 Hajj, the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, the attack on the Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran. However, in March 2023, after discussions brokered by China and Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish relations.
Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and of supporting their family during their absence from home.
The 2009 Saudi Arabian floods affected Jeddah, on the Red Sea (western) coast of Saudi Arabia, and other areas of Makkah Province. They have been described by civil defence officials as the worst in 27 years. As of 3 January 2010, some 122 people had been reported to have been killed, and more than 350 were missing. Some roads were under a meter of water on 26 November, and many of the victims were believed to have drowned in their cars. At least 3,000 vehicles were swept away or damaged. The death toll was expected to rise as flood waters receded, allowing rescuers to reach stranded vehicles.
The Mecca Metro or Makkah Metro is a metro system with four planned lines in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Metro was constructed by China Railway Construction Corporation and is run by Mecca Mass Rail Transit Company (MMRTC). The metro forms part of the 62-billion-riyal Mecca Public Transport Programme (MPTP), which will include integrated bus services.
The Al Mashaaer Al Mugaddassah Metro Line, is a metro line in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Claimed to have the highest capacity of any metro in the world, it operates for seven days a year, and is used exclusively as a shuttle train for pilgrims between holy sites in Mecca, Mount Arafat, Muzdalifah and Mina to reduce congestion caused by thousands of buses and cars during the Hajj. It is the second metro system on the Arabian Peninsula, after the Dubai Metro.
The following lists events that happened during 2015 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
A crawler crane collapsed over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, around 5:10 p.m. on 11 September 2015, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others. The city was preparing for the Hajj pilgrimage. The collapse has been cited as the deadliest crane collapse in history, with the previous most deadly incident being the collapse of a construction crane in New York City in 2008, killing seven people.
On 3 July 1990, 1,426 people were suffocated and trampled to death in a crowd crush or stampede event in a tunnel near Mecca during the Hajj.
The 1994 Hajj stampede resulted in the deaths of at least 270 pilgrims on 23 May 1994 during the Hajj in Mecca during the Stoning of the Devil ritual.
The 2004 Hajj stampede resulted in the deaths of at least 251 pilgrims on 1 February 2004 during the Hajj in Mecca. The incident took place during the ritual stoning of three pillars in the Mina valley, close to Mecca, on the final day of Hajj ceremonies. More than 200 people were injured, and the incident became the worst tragedy during the Hajj since 1990.
Bilkisu Yusuf was a Nigerian journalist, columnist and editor for prominent newspapers in Abuja, Kano and Kaduna, Nigeria. She is known in Nigeria for being the first woman to direct a national newspaper operation and served as editor for two more. She was a Hausa, Muslim, feminist, of Yoruba descent and advocate for interfaith society, who was known for being an adviser to the Nigerian President on International Affairs and the founding of NGOs, such as Women In Nigeria (WIN) and the Federation of Muslim Women's Association (FOMWAN). Yusuf was killed in the 2015 Mina stampede while on Haj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The word jamrah is applied to the place of stoning, as well as to the stones.
Jamrah originally means a pebble. It is applied to the heap of stones or a pillar.