Two pilgrims who travelled to Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage have died in the gulf country.
According to the Director of Finance for the Ghana Hajj Board, Hamza Farouk, the two are the only participants in this year’s pilgrimage who could not make it home safely.
Speaking to the media after the last flight of Ghanaian pilgrims returned to the country, Hamza Farouk said that the male and female deceased persons died of natural causes while embarking on the Hajj in Mecca.
“We started the preparation barely six weeks to the Hajj. This is an exercise that normally takes six months. So at some point, people felt it wasn’t going to be possible, there were doubts in the minds of so many people, but Insha Allah, it’s been successful.”
“We have managed to go with our entire quota of 3069 pilgrims. Everybody except two pilgrims is back home safely. And the first schedules were kept as planned. They both died of natural causes; the male and female both died of natural causes,” Hamza Farouk is quoted in a report by asaaseradio.com.
He underscored that plans have been made for pilgrims who paid but could not make the trip to receive a refund of their money.
“Indeed, we left behind about a hundred or so pilgrims, and we have put in place measures to refund their monies fully.”
“We are using this opportunity to ask all pilgrims who may have paid to us and for one or two reasons couldn’t make it to put in their application for refund as soon as possible. We have a window of about one week to process all these applications supported by necessary documents or evidence of payment,” he added.
Hajj is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. The 2022 edition commenced on Thursday, July 7, 2022, and ended on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.
GA/SEA
The two are said to have died during the pilgrim in Mecca of natural causes