At 71, the Libyan Al-Safi Mansour has finally realized his dream of making the great Muslim pilgrimage after being afraid of dying without having visited Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, closed for three years to people. elderly.

With restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic having been completely lifted this year, this father of seven children did not hesitate to make the trip to Saudi Arabia, despite sweltering temperatures in one of the hottest regions in the world .

“I wished all my life to have the chance” to make the pilgrimage, said Al-Safi Mansour from Mount Arafat, a few kilometers from the Grand Mosque in Mecca, where he prayed in a temperature exceeding 48 degrees on Tuesday.

At the height of the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, the Gulf kingdom had reduced the number of participants to a few thousand, compared to 2.5 million in 2019. The quota was increased to 926,000 in 2022, but limited to less than 65 years.

“I thought I was going to die before I performed the hajj,” says Al-Safi Mansour, his glasses fogged up by the ambient humidity.

Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be undertaken by every Muslim once in their lifetime, if they can afford it.

More than 1.8 million faithful have taken part since Sunday, some of whom have saved up for years to afford it.

Abdel Latif Abdel Wahhab, 70, was due to do so for the first time in 2020, before being overtaken by health restrictions.

“I was very depressed and sad,” recalls this Libyan pensioner.

But today “I am happy, very happy”, he adds.

Religious rituals, carried out over several days in and around Mecca in the west of the kingdom, have been particularly grueling this year, with most taking place outdoors in the height of summer.

At least 287 people have been treated for heatstroke or sunstroke, according to Saudi authorities, who called on the most vulnerable not to expose themselves to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.

Several elderly people, leaning on their canes or in wheelchairs, were seen in a state of exhaustion, rescued by relatives or by one of the 32,000 paramedics deployed in the area.

Suffering from a heart condition, Chaaban al-Sissi, a 67-year-old Egyptian, admits that “high temperatures exhaust him”. “But I will not leave (…) until I have completed all the rituals,” he adds.

In addition to the stifling heat, Rahim, a 76-year-old Indonesian making the fifth pilgrimage of his life, said he had difficulty moving with his cane among “the huge crowd”.

For most pilgrims, the experience is still unforgettable. Fadia Abdullah, a 67-year-old Egyptian sheltered under a green umbrella, says she feels “all the joy in the world”.

“I’m living a moment that I’ve been waiting for all my life,” she says.

28/06/2023 16:26:42           Mont Arafat (Arabie saoudite) (AFP)           © 2023 AFP