2015 Hajj Stampede Is The Deadliest Ever As Casualty Number Rises

The death toll from last month’s stampede in Mina has risen to at least 1,636, according to tallies given by foreign officials, making it the deadliest incident in the pilgrimage’s history. As many as 168 Nigerian pilgrims have been confirmed dead so far in the tragedy.

The Mina crush now stands as the deadliest Hajj disaster in history, and based on the total of the individual national reports cited in the table below (“Nationalities of victims”), may have been the deadliest crowd crush disaster to occur in modern times.

The official government death toll in Saudi Arabia, where newspapers, broadcast media, and the Internet are heavily censored, has remained unchanged since two days after the event, with at least 769 reported killed and 934 others injured. However, outside sources have estimated the death toll to be much higher.

On 14 October, 2015, the Associated Press listed a death toll of at least 1,621, while Agence France-Presse cites a slightly higher figure of at least 1,636 killed. Some 1,275 Muslim pilgrims remain missing, according to reports compiled from their home countries.

The incident happened in Mina at the intersection of streets 204 and 223 leading up to Jamaraat Bridge. The cause of the disaster is disputed. The Mina disaster has inflamed tensions between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, which were already raised due to the wider turmoil in the Middle East, such as the Syrian Civil War and Yemen Civil War.

In a press conference held on the day of the incident, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Interior Mansour Al-Turki attempted to address most issues regarding the incident. He said that an investigation was ongoing and that the exact cause of the overcrowding that led to the deadly stampede on Mina Street 204 is yet to be ascertained.

According to a statement by the Saudi civil defence directorate, the stampede occurred Thursday 24 September 2015 at 09:00 Mecca time 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 was triggered when two large groups of pilgrims intersected from different directions onto the same street. The area was not previously identified as a dangerous bottleneck. The junction lay between two pilgrim camp sites.

The International Business Times and the Daily Mail reported that the governor of Mecca Province and Saudi Arabia’s head of the central Hajj committee, Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, blamed the crush outside the holy city on “some pilgrims with African nationalities”; this caused some African leaders to lash out in response.

Nationalities of victims

Nationality	Deceased	Injured	Missing	Ref.
Afghanistan	2	8	6	[25]
Algeria	28	5	31	[26]
Bangladesh	92	0	80	[27]
Benin	52	2	41	[28]
Burkina Faso	22	0	7	[29]
Burundi	1	0	6	[30]
Cameroon	53	1	52	[31]
Chad	52	0	50	[32]
China	4	0	0	[33]
Djibouti	2	0	3	[34]
Egypt	181	10	53	[35]
Ethiopia	47	2	0	[36]
Gambia	0	0	2	[37]
Ghana	12	6	26	[38]
India	114	21	10	[39]
Indonesia	127	5	5	[40][41]
Iran	428	0	36	[42]
Iraq	1	0	0	[43]
Ivory Coast	14	13	70	[44]
Jordan	2	0	1	[45]
Kenya	10	0	0	[46][47]
Lebanon	0	1	1	[48]
Libya	10	0	7	[49]
Malaysia	1	0	0	[50]
Mali	119	6	246	[51]
Mauritius	4	0	1	[52]
Morocco	33	5	6	[53]
Myanmar	6	0	5	[54]
Netherlands	1	0	0	[55]
Niger	32	20	83	[56]
Nigeria	168	7	114	[57]
Oman	1	0	0	[58]
Pakistan	100	2	19	[59]
Philippines	1	0	0	[60]
Senegal	61	2	4	[61]
Somalia	8	0	0	[55]
Sri Lanka	1	0	1	[62]
Sudan	30	0	2	[63]
Tanzania	22	0	43	[64]
Tunisia	7	0	4	[65]
Turkey	7	0	1	[66][67]
Uganda	2	0	250	[68][69][70]
United Kingdom	1	0	0	[71]
Countries Total	1,893	116	1,274
Saudi Arabia Official	769	934		[72]