The second and final batch of three hundred and forty-two (342) Hajj pilgrims from Sierra Leone have safely landed at the Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madina at 17:00 hrs. KSA time.

The pilgrims, who departed the Lungi International Airport onboard the Ethiopian Airlines in the early hours of Saturday, 1st June, 2024, have joined the first batch of 267 pilgrims that arrived in Madina, Islam’s second holiest city, on Friday. The pilgrims are expected to spend a few days in Madina for Ziyara (visitation of historical holy places) as well as performing the 5-daily prayers at the Masid Nabawi (Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque PBUH) before they procced to Makkah for the 1445/2024 Hajj.

Hajj is the annual pilgrimage to Makkah that all abled adult Muslims are obliged to perform at least once in a lifetime. Every year, around two million Muslims perform the pilgrimage, which is a five-day event taking place in the last month of the Islamic (lunar) calendar, called Zul Hijjah which, for this year, corresponds between 14 and 19 June.

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Some pilgrims who spoke to this writer say they were very pleased with the Presidential Taskforce on Hajj of Sierra Leone for the swift arrangements it made with Ethiopian Airlines to ensure that they were flown to Saudi Arabia way in advance of the start of the Hajj rituals.

Members of the Presidential Task Force on Hajj in Sierra Leone, together with the staff of the Sierra Leone Embassy in Saudi Arabia, a cross section of Sierra Leonean Students and the nationals’ union in the Kingdom, are presently in Madina to support the pilgrims in the areas of hospitality, accessing accommodation and Ziyara, among others.