Mohamed Aissa: “Algeria won’t require a revamping of the organization of Hajj pilgrimage”

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa, has refused to accuse any party of negligence or barbarism in the recent ill-fated mass stampede of pilgrims in Mina in Saudi Arabia, stressing that “we don’t want exploit this tragic incident for sheer political purposes”, as he put it.

Mr Aissa attributed this unfortunate incident to the “act of God Almighty”, while revealing that the Algerian mission will get the official list of the victims who perished in the deadly Mina crush in the coming hours after the identification process through the use of electronic fingerprinting procedures carried out by the Saudi authorities.

Mr Mohamed Aissa explained that he can’t level any judgments on what happened in the 2015 Hajj pilgrimage until the release of the results of the in-depth investigations initiated by the Saudi Arabian authorities, stressing by the same token that the tragic Mina incident has driven some quarters to use it for political exploitation,” but reaffirmed sternly that “Algeria won’t indulge in any conflict or controversy on the matter”.

The minister underlined having, until now, a provisional list of Algerian hajjis, victims of this stampede that includes 18 deaths, 23 injured and 49 missing hajjis.

“The Saudi authorities asked Sunday Algeria to provide them with a list of missing Algerian hajjis to facilitate the search operations, through the use of the electronic fingerprint and the inventory at the level of mortuaries,” he said during a national radio program in which he was the distinguished guest on Monday.

The minister firmly rejected “any political exploitation of the crane collapse and Mina stampede, waiting for Saudi authorities to Carry through the two investigations into the exact circumstances surrounding these two accidents.”