The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has said that the number of Nigerians that died in the Jamarat Stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia, has risen to 199.

The commissioner, Planning, Research and Library Service of the commission, Dr. Saleh Okenwa, said last night in Makkah that 36 were injured and 121 still missing.

He said Sokoto State lost 79 pilgrims and has 59 missing while Kano State lost 20 pilgrims to top the list of causalities.

The commissioner also said that only five Nigerians remain on admission at the hospitals while others had been discharged.

He listed other states affected as Adamawa, Borno, FCT, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara who either lost pilgrims or have their pilgrims declared missing.

The number of dead has continued to rise after some of those earlier declared missing were identified among the corpses in the hospitals and the figure is expected to rise when those declared missing may have been identified.

“The numbers of dead from the state pilgrims were 160 comprising 70 male, 84 female, four male officials and two female officials. Thirty-three – being 18 male and 15 female – were injured, while 110 were still missing, comprising 61 male, 48 female and one male official.

“The tour operators recorded 39 deaths with 25 male and 14 female, two were injured and among the five on admission, while 11 comprising eight male and three female were still missing,” he said.

The Commissioner of Operations of the commission, Alhaji Ibrahim Modibbo Saleh, said 56, 987 pilgrims had been airlifted home in 21 days with 148 flights, adding that Nigeria was ahead of the October 27 deadline set for scheduled return flight of pilgrims back home.

While saying that the airlift represent 86.1 percent and that three flights were scheduled to take Nigerians back home with about 1500 pilgrims, he added that the number of pilgrims that would remain to be airlifted would be about 6500.

•Sourced from LEADERSHIP.

Update news