Tunisian president sacks religious official after Hajj heat deaths
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Tunisian President Kais Saied has sacked the country's minister of religious affairs after 49 Tunisian pilgrims were confirmed dead in the annual Islamic Hajj in Saudi Arabia amid scorching heat.
Saied has decided to terminate Ibrahim Chaibi's tasks, Tunisia's official news agency TAP reported on Friday, quoting a presidential statement that did not give an explanation.
The step came shortly after Chaibi confirmed 49 deaths among Tunisian pilgrims mostly due to high temperatures during the rituals.
The fatalities included 44 unregistered pilgrims, who had gone on the religious journey on tourist visas, Chaibi said.
He acknowledged the possibility of negligence in supervising the pilgrims, according to TAP.
The temperature in the Saudi city of Mecca and other nearby holy sites hovered around 50 degrees Celsius through Tuesday's final pilgrimage day.
Several Arab governments said most of the pilgrims who died in Saudi Arabia, Islam's birthplace, were not registered and had travelled on tourist visas, which made it harder to find them.
Some 1.8 million pilgrims took part in this year's Hajj, one of Islam's five pillars.
