A survivor of the Thursday stampede
at Muna Camp, a few kilometres
away from the holy city of Makkah,
Saudi Arabia, Magaji Falalu Zarewa,
has told Saturday Nation how he
watched helplessly as pilgrims died.
Zarewa, who is 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 stated.
Zarewa, who is a student of the
Islamic University of Madina, also in
Saudi Arabia, said he has been
performing hajj annually since the
last 10 years.
He added, “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.”
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