Dead Saudi Pilgrims

Three years after his family fled their northeastern Nigerian home to escape threats from Boko Haram militants, Mudasir Gambo must have thought his luck had changed when he won a ticket to attend the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

But in a cruel twist of fate, the 19-year-old, who had memorised the entire Koran when he was eight, was among more than 700 pilgrims killed last month in a crush outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Nearly two weeks after the worst disaster to strike the pilgrimage for 25 years, more than 50 mourners were gathered at the Gambo family’s modest three-bedroom house, moving by turns from a communal compound outdoors to pray inside for Gambo, who had been on his first trip outside Nigeria when he died.

“It was shocking. I felt traumatised, confused and very empty,” said the teenager’s father, Mallam Sallau Gambo, in a trembling voice. “His death has left a very wide gap that can never be filled.”

The crush took place as millions of people tried to reach three walls to pelt them with stones in a ritual intended to drive out the devil.

Uba Mana, a spokesman for the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, said on Thursday that 99 pilgrims from the west African country died, 42 were hurt and 215 were missing.

2 female pilgrims console each other

The haj, the world’s largest annual gathering of people, has been the scene of stampedes, fires and riots in the past, but their frequency had diminished in recent years as Saudi Arabia’s authorities spent billions of dollars to improve safety.

Gambo’s family grew concerned when he failed to call them in the evening, as he had on previous days, to discuss his movements. He had been performing the pilgrimage with his Saudi Arabia-based brother, Abubakar, before the pair were separated.