Tunisian President Kais Saied sacked Brahim Chaibi, the minister of religious affairs, following widespread criticism after the deaths of at least 49 Tunisians taking part in the Haj pilgrimage, the presidency said on Friday, June 21.
At least 49 Tunisians have died due to the extreme heat in Saudi Arabia during the past week. Tunisian families are still searching for several missing people.
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The death toll from this year’s Haj has exceeded 1,000, an AFP tally said on June 20, more than half of them unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.
The new deaths reported on June 20 included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who passed away, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.
In addition to Egypt, new fatalities were confirmed by Pakistan and Indonesia. Out of around 150,000 pilgrims, Pakistan has so far recorded 58 deaths.
Indonesia, which had around 240,000 pilgrims, raised its death toll to 183, according to the ministry of religious affairs, compared with 313 deaths recorded last year.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said on June 16 that 14 Jordanian pilgrims had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heat wave”, and that 17 others were “missing”.
Iran reported the deaths of five pilgrims but did not specify the cause, while Senegal’s foreign ministry said that three others had died.
Deaths have also been confirmed by Malaysia, India, Sudan and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. In many cases, authorities have not specified the cause of the death.
(With inputs from AFP and Reuters)