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. Estimates of the number of dead vary: the Associated Press reported 2,411 dead, while Agence France-Presse reported 2,236 killed. Based on the total of the individual national reports cited in the table below (nationalities of victims), at least 2,431 people died. The government of Saudi Arabia officially reported two days after the event that there had been 769 deaths and 934 injured. These figures remained official at the time of the next year's Hajj and were never updated. The largest number of victims were from Iran, followed by Mali and Nigeria.
The crush occurred in Mina at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 leading to Jamaraat Bridge. The cause of the disaster remains in dispute. 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. 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.
Background
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. As traditionally performed, the Hajj consists of a series of rites including the Stoning of the Devil (Arabic: رمي الجمرات ramī al-jamarāt) 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.
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 and the threat of MERS.
A number of Hajj-related crowd crush disasters have occurred in the past, 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. 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.
Disaster
According to a statement by the Saudi civil defence directorate, the crush 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 crush began when two large groups of pilgrims intersected from different directions onto the same street. The area was not identified previously as dangerous. The junction lay between two pilgrim camp sites. 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"; prompting condemnation from several African government officials.
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 crush on Mina Street 204 are yet to be ascertained. 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."
One day after the Mina crush disaster, 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", immunized MBN against possible domestic criticism.
Casualties
The exact casualty total for the Mina crowd collapse is disputed. The Saudi government officially reported 769 deaths, 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. Independent estimates range between 2,236 and 2,431 (see nationalities of victims table) people killed, with the most recent Associated Press estimate giving a death toll of 2,411, based on "media reports and officials comments from 36 of the over 180 countries that sent citizens to the hajj".
Estimates of the injured and missing also vary greatly; Saudi reports claim 934 injured; Iranian reports are much higher, estimating more than 2,000 injuries. 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 crush site alongside 220 emergency response units. Pilgrims were redirected away from the crush site, and the Saudi Red Crescent Authority was mobilised. 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 crush, medics said.
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. DNA samples of the next of kin of Hajj stampede victims were collected at Al-Nour Specialist Hospital, Mecca.
Prominent victims
- Ghazanfar Roknabadi, an Iranian diplomat who served as Iranian ambassador to Lebanon from 2010 to 2014, was missing, and confirmed dead on 25 November 2015. Iran's Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported that the body of Roknabadi, who had been reported as missing, was identified by DNA testing and visual confirmation by two of his brothers. While some Iranian officials had said Roknabadi was alive and had been kidnapped by Saudi Arabia covertly, Iranian news source Mehr News Agency reported that he died in the crush. Iran stated it would conduct independent medical tests to determine whether Roknabadi did die in the Mina disaster.Saudi Arabia had initially denied that Roknabadi was present at the 2015 Hajj. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, on 28 September 2015, referring to Saudi media reports that say they do not have any official record of the entry of Ghazanfar Asl Roknabadi into the kingdom, described the reports as "incorrect" and "hasty", saying the ministry has documents showing that Riyadh had approved an ordinary Hajj visa for the dead diplomat. Iranian media also released footage on 29 September 2015, showing Roknabadi's presence in Mina. The passport showing his entrance into Saudi Arabia was also released by Iranian media.
- Adeola Maurufudeen Adefolabi, from Lagos, Nigeria, was a one-term member representing Ifako-Ijaiye in the lower chamber of the National Assembly and former chairman of Ifako Ijaiye and Ojokoro Local Government Areas.
- Tijani El-Miskin was a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Maiduguri and a former director of a special training course for the students of Arabic studies at the University of Maiduguri in Gamboru. He also was the Chairman of the Borno State Pilgrims Board.
- Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf was the first female editor from the northern part of Nigeria. She studied political science in Nigeria and the United States and journalism in Russia. After that, Bilkisu Yusuf pursued a successful career in journalism in Nigeria, working for the Daily Trust and Leadership newspapers and several local editions in Kano and Kaduna states.
- Mufti Mohammed Farooq, a prominent Indian Islamic scholar who was to perform Hajj, has been missing since the stampede. Farooq, a senior religious scholar, is a prolific writer and has authored more than 50 books on a range of subjects, including Hadith and Fiqh, in Urdu and Hindi. He is the founder and principal of the Jamia Mahmoodia school in Meerut.
Other prominent victims included:
- Algeria: M. Djaâfar—Husband of Algerian Minister for Family and Women Nouara Saâdia
- Iran:
- Ahmad Fahima—Senior Iranian diplomat – First Secretary to the Holy See
- Mohammad Sadeq Akhavan—Deputy Director of the Centre for Dispute Resolution Councils Iran's judiciary
- Mohammad Rahim Aghaeipour—Iranian Diplomat, Ambassador to Slovenia
- Mohsen Haji Hassani Kargar reciter of Qur'an a world winner of International Quran Recital Competition in 2015
- Hassan Danesh winner of Qur'an reciting competitions in 2012 and 2015.
- Iraq: Ismail Hamid Zair—Brigadier, Baghdad Crimes Unit
- Nigeria:
- Musa Hassan Alkali—Justice, Nigerian Court of Appeal
- Bello Gidan Hamma—Chairman, Illela Local Government Area
- Abdulkadir Jega—Justice, Nigerian Court of Appeal
- Shehu Kontagora—Niger State Accountant General
- Faisal Musa—Member, Katsina State House of Assembly
- Abbas Ibrahim Sambo—Emir of Zing
- Abdullahi T. Yeldu—Member, Kebbi State House of Assembly
- Pakistan: Assad Murtaza Gilani—Former Pakistani Member of Parliament
- Senegal:
- Gnilane Diouf—Mother of footballer Mame Biram Diouf
- Abdoulaye Diaw—Senegalese National Technical Director, Football
- Sudan: Talaat Abdel-Razeq—Sudanese Major General, Air Defense Commander
Eyewitness accounts
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.
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.
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.
Investigation
Saudi official statements
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."
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, 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. 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.