Between the 71-year-old Alhaji Alieu Dausy Wurie and the 65-year-old Haja Isatu Wurie of Bowie, Maryland, there were an estimated 1,300 deaths during the yearly pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
At points during this year’s event, the temperature surpassed 122 °F (50 °C).
Saida Wurie told the news that her parents’ tour operator had not delivered on several of its promises, such as enough food and drink.
Two weeks after their arrival in Saudi Arabia, the pair, who were born in Sierra Leone, vanished on Sunday, June 16.
The younger Ms. Wurie learned of their deaths a few days later.
The distraught daughter told the news that her parents had paid $11,500 (£9,000) apiece to travel for the Hajj, saying it was “very important” to them.
“It’s something that they wanted to do their entire lives,” she said. “They were beyond excited.”
The couple used a Maryland-based American tour operator to arrange their trip to the Middle East along with close to a hundred other pilgrims.
“A lot of the things promised to them weren’t provided,” claims Ms. Wurie.
“They went a few days having to find food for themselves, even though the package was supposed to come with meals every day.”
Under the intense heat, the couple informed Ms. Wurie that they were “taking it a day at a time” and making do with what little they had.
After “walking for hours,” a US couple perished in the Hajj heat.
According to their daughter, who spoke to the news, a US couple who perished in Saudi Arabia on the Hajj pilgrimage were trekking in intense heat for more than two hours when they passed away from heat stroke.
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