Saudi Arabia announces end of 2025 Hajj, begins preparations for 2026

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3 days ago

The 2025 Hajj exercise formally came to an end today as pilgrims completed the ritual of stoning at the three Jamarat in Mina and left the Tent City for Makkah to perform the last obligatory Hajj ritual, Tawaf Al-Wida (farewell Tawaf).

Though today marked the official end of this year’s Hajj, most pilgrims took advantage of the concession of being allowed to hasten to complete the exercise yesterday (Sunday) and leave Mina before sunset.

This year’s spiritual exercise, which is one of the five pillars of Islam, obligatory on adult Muslims who have the means and ability to perform it, commenced Wednesday last week with pilgrims departing Makkah for Mina.

A total of 1,673,230 pilgrims, including not less than 54,743 Nigerians, participated in this year’s Hajj from 171 countries, including the host Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Nigerian contingent is made up of 41,526 pilgrims from the states and Armed Forces and 13,217 from the private tour operators.

Of the over 1.6 million pilgrims that participated in this year’s Hajj, 1,506,576 pilgrims arrived from across the world, including 314,337 who arrived through the Makkah Initiative Routes, while 166,654 Saudi indigenes and residents performed the exercise.

The figure is made up of 877,841 male pilgrims and 795,389 female pilgrims who arrived through land, sea, and air. While a total of 66,465 arrived through land borders, 5,094 and 1,435,017 arrived through seaport and airports respectively.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, in cooperation with the Pilgrim Experience Program, held its annual Hajj concluding ceremony at the ministry headquarters in Makkah on Sunday.

The event honored the recipients of the Labaytum Award for Excellence in Services to Pilgrims and celebrated the efforts of several pilgrim affairs offices and nonprofit organisations for their outstanding services during the current Hajj season.

At the ceremony, Minister of Hajj and Umrah, Tawfiq Al-Rabiah announced the official handover of the preliminary arrangements document to pilgrim affairs offices in preparation for the 1447 AH (2026) Hajj season.

According to SPA, “This early step aims to enhance readiness and improve pilgrims’ experience by enabling early contracts, site allocation, and service integration.”

Meanwhile, Nigerian pilgrims will on Friday, June 13 begin their return journey back home with the first flights bringing pilgrims from Imo, Bauchi, Kebbi, and Sokoto states.

Air Peace is expected to fly Imo pilgrims back home, while Max Air will bring Bauchi pilgrims back and Saudi airline, FlyNas is expected to bring Kebbi and Sokoto pilgrims home on Day One of the inbound airlift.