Ugandan pilgrims 'survived hajj stampede'

By Farooq Kasule

None of the 750 Ugandan pilgrims to Mecca was killed during a stampede that claimed the lives of more than 700 pilgrims in Mina in Saudi Arabia, according to the Mufti of Uganda, Sheikh Shaban Mubajje.

"I have talked to the Mufti this [Sunday] morning. He says no Ugandan was killed," said Hajji Nsereko Mutumba, the Uganda Muslim Supreme council spokesperson.

The horrific stampede happened on Thursday during a ritual stoning of the devil in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

One Ugandan pilgrim, a woman said to be in her 60s, reportedly died of an illness inside her tent – but it was not related to the fatal mass crush.

According to an official at the Uganda Bureau of Hajj Affairs, she was identified as Hadija Nandujja who travelled through Masaka Daawa Hajj and Umrah led by Sheikh Ahmed Kayemba.

Meanwhile, it’s a war of words as Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded Saudi Arabia to apologise Sunday for the stampede at the hajj.

A formal Saudi inquiry is under way into the stampede, the worst disaster to strike the annual pilgrimage in a quarter-century.

 

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