Mohamed Aissa: “Algeria is awaiting the outcome of official investigation to find out what happened in Mina and Mecca”

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa, has asserted that Algeria is awaiting the final statement to be released by the Saudi authorities about the results of the current investigations into the recent ill-fated mass stampede in Mina in addition to the circumstances surrounding the deadly crane collapse in Mecca to know the exact truth of what happened there, especially as Algerian pilgrims were among the dead.

The Religious Affairs Minister stressed that Algeria is waiting for an official statement from the Saudi authorities in connection with the final outcome of the ongoing inquiry and the reasons behind the tragic events that claimed the lives of hundreds of pilgrims during this pilgrimage season in the holy places of Islam.

In a declaration to France 24 TV Channel on the sidelines of a forum on the precepts of Islam and Sufism in Paris, Mr Mohamed Aissa described the events in Saudi Arabia during the 2015 Hajj period as ” very sad”, stressing that Algeria and the Islamic world felt grief and pain in the face of this woeful tragedy, adding that the dead were regarded as “Martyrs”.