Saudi Arabia prepares for another Haj menaced by extreme heat

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: The deaths of 1,300 pilgrims during the Haj in Saudi Arabia last year underscored the urgent need to mitigate dangers 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 Makkah last June as 1.8 million worshippers took part in the annual rites, one of the five pillars of Islam.

Saudi officials said 83 percent of the 1,301 recorded fatalities did not have official Haj permits and were therefore unable to access amenities meant to make the Haj more bearable, including air-conditioned tents.

It was a high-profile example of the havoc wrought by heat in 2024, which the Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Friday was the hottest year ever recorded.

The vast majority of hajj pilgrims come from abroad, and diplomats involved in their countries´ responses to last year´s crisis told AFP at the time that most deaths were heat-related.

While Riyadh has not detailed preparations for this year´s pilgrimage -- still five months away -- authorities will no doubt want to avoid a repeat, said Abderrezak Bouchama of Saudi Arabia´s King Abdullah International Medical Research Centre.

“I think they will above all reduce the risk of illegal pilgrims,” said Bouchama, who has worked with the Saudi government for more than three decades on reducing heat deaths.

“I think they´ve learnt their lesson, so we have to see what kind of measures they have taken for that.”