incident that happened in Saudi Arabia recounts his own experience of
the Thursday stampede at Muna Camp, a few kilometres away from,
the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
Zarewa, a pilgrim from Kano State, said he narrowly escaped death
himself, adding that his Ventolin Inhaler saved him from death.
“I stepped on dead bodies to escape to a safer place to stay and
recover. Lifeless bodies of pilgrims became steps to escape routes,”
he said while speaking to Saturday Nation.
Zarewa, who is a student of the Islamic University of Madina, in Saudi
Arabia, said he has been performing hajj annually since the last 10
years.
He added by saying, “The incident occurred around few minutes after
9:00am local time. The problem started when a large crowd of people
who had already stoned the Jamrat (devil) were returning through the
route of people going towards the Jamarat from Muzdalifa. That
caused obstruction of movement and generated heat. People started
collapsing. That is the first cause of people’s death. There was no
water around the area.
“Then, the major problem and what I call the major cause of death is
nations whose tents are close to the scene of the stampede.
Countries like Algeria and Morocco locked access roads to their tents.
Because, when the heat was becoming unbearable, people wanted to
enter the nearby camps to decongest the main road, get air and water
to drink.
“So, people started climbing the tents. I also got a strategic pillar of
the tent and climbed, then I started breathing better until people
began to shake the tent and it finally collapsed on many of us. I didn’t
know how I came out of the tent because people were still climbing
on us. I just saw myself as people were pouring water on me.
“When I recovered a little, I quickly grabbed my inhaler, because I am
asthmatic and used it. Because I was still gasping for air. Then, the
white tent was covered with blood and I watched helplessly as other
pilgrims died.
“After I fully recovered, I saw a heap of dead bodies serving as steps
for other people to escape. By then, rescue team had arrived, but they
were no longer concerned about the dead bodies, they were only
picking people with tendencies to survive.
“Then, I was telling the soldiers who were also trying to control the
crowd that, the best they can do is to find a way of stopping pilgrims
who have already performed the stoning of the devil from returning
through the same route used by people who are going to the Jamrat.
They told me, because I speak Arabic, that they were helpless. I told
them can’t you people security agents, enter the camps of the nations
around here and force them to open their gate, so that you can divert
people to pass through their tents? And that was what they eventually
did and people started entering. At that point, whether you like it or
not, you must step on corpses to get out of the crowd.
“Then, people started to look for water everywhere, if they see you
with water, it was like you are holding life. In my presence, someone
urinated and poured the urine on his own head just to get refreshed.
“Three Fulani women who followed us because they saw me and my
friends as guides died in the stampede. Although I didn’t see their
corpses, my friend said he saw one of them crying as people were
stepping on her and she died in the process,” he concluded.
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