Over 2,400 dead! Saudi Arabia “fails to admit” 2015 hajj stampede is deadliest in history
By Olabisi Yakub
It appears Saudi Arabia is not interested in revealing the actual death toll of the last deadly hajj stampede to the world.
At least 274 Nigerians died in the September 24 tragedy in Mina. One of them is Bilkisu Yusuf, he first female editor from Northern Nigeria.
Saudi official figures say 769 people died in the tragedy. That figure is as old as September 26, AP says. That figure reflects the death toll gathered a mere two days after the tragedy.
That means the Saudi government has for three months failed to “admit” the death toll had risen above their “outdated” figure.
READ:
- Nigerian pilgrims, others from Africa “responsible for” deadly stampede, top Saudi official claims
- “How ‘Nigerian shortcut mentality’ caused deadly Hajj stampede,” Nigerian in Mecca claims
- WATCH: The moment “African” Hajj pilgrims took the shortcut that led to deadly stampede
But we don’t know why.
“A new AP count shows that at least 2,411 pilgrims died in the crush and stampede that struck hajj this year in Saudi Arabia,” AP reporter Jon Gambrell said in a tweet on Thursday.
“The AP count of hajj crush fatalities, compiled from 36 countries, is more than three times the figure acknowledged by Saudi officials.
“The official Saudi toll of 769 people killed has not changed since Sept. 26, and officials there have yet to address the discrepancy,” he said.
If AP’s figures are accurate, the 2015 stampede will pass for the most deadly in the history of hajj. That, perhaps, is he reality Saudi Arabia is running from.
In July 1990, 1,426 pilgrims were crushed to death in a tunnel near Mecca.
The stampede, like the one in September 2015, occurred on Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), Islam’s most important feast and the day of the stoning ritual.
Here are Jon Gambrell’s tweets
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