Thousands of Pilgrims Fail to Reach Mecca in Time for Hajj

In 2020 and 2021, Saudi Arabia barred international pilgrims from travelling to Mecca because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. This year, the kingdom has capped international visitor numbers for the five-day Hajj to 850,000 pilgrims. This is significantly less than the nearly 1.9 million overseas pilgrims who attended in 2019 before the pandemic.

In many West African nations, a bigger obstacle has been the surge in prices to attend the Hajj. The cost of attendance is set by national Hajj agencies, which aim to keep prices down so that Muslims in their country can afford to make the pilgrimage.

But the current global rise in fuel prices has led to a surge in flight costs. Added to this, many West African nations have seen their currency fall dramatically against the U.S. dollar, making this year's Hajj substantially more expensive than in previous years.

In Nigeria and Senegal, for example, the cost of the Hajj trip rose by some 60%, while it rose by 100% in Ghana. In Cameroon, however, the price of the Hajj pilgrimage ended up rising only by 16%, compared to 2019. The government decided to give a large government subsidy to the National Hajj Commission following the uproar that ensued when the initial price was announced.