Sudan’s Hajj pilgrims start to return home

Thousands of Sudanese pilgrims who travelled to Saudi Arabia to perform the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage, are beginning to return home, in what is handled as a massive logistical operation by Saudi authorities.

Sudan’s Minister of Guidance and Endowments, Abu Bakr Osman said that the pilgrims, who number 34,432 would begin moving from the holy city to Sudan as of Sunday.

The Minister said that eight pilgrims died during the Hajj this year, which lasted from August 19 to August 24.

‘Successful Hajj’

During the concluding press conference for this year’s Hajj in Mina on Thursday, Mecca governor. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal thanked the media who covered the season, as well as those who contributed to serving the pilgrims.

He said that the number of workers providing services to the pilgrims exceeded a quarter of a million people.

Prince Khaled said that the holy sites train transported 360,000 pilgrims, while 18,000 buses transported 1,800,000 pilgrims.

He said that the health sector deployed 32,000 health practitioners. As many as 25 hospitals and 135 health centres with a capacity of 5,000 beds were available in Mecca and the holy sites to serve pilgrims.

(Source: RD / Arab News)