For 2nd year, Ebola-hit Guinea’s Muslims barred from Hajj

CONAKRY, Guinea

 For the second year in a row, Guinean Muslims will not be allowed to perform the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia due to fears of the possible spread of Ebola, a Guinean official announced Wednesday.

“Guinea has yet to be officially declared Ebola-free,” Elhadj Abdoulaye Diassy, Guinea’s secretary-general for religious affairs, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ebola-hit countries must be formally declared Ebola-free at least three months before the date of the pilgrimage.

In 2014, when the deadly virus first appeared in the West African country, Saudi authorities banned Guinean Muslims from performing the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

According to local travel agencies, some Guinean Muslims plan to travel to neighboring countries that have been unaffected by the virus, from which they hope to arrange trips to the holy land this year.

Of Guinea’s total population of roughly 12 million, some 85 percent are said to be Muslim.

Before the virus appeared in the country in 2014, between 6,000 and 7,000 Guineans had performed the Hajj pilgrimage each year, according to the country’s religious affairs secretariat.