Despite fears that initially rose on the probability of this year’s Hajj holding in view of the US/Iran war, a total of 1,518,153 pilgrims, including about 50,000 Nigerians, arrived the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the 2026 Hajj, with more still being expected to arrive before the commencement of the spiritual exercise tomorrow (Monday).

The US and Israel/ Iran, which broke out on February 18 with the air strikes on Tehran, while Iran, in the course of the war opening fires on some Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, which caused fears of possibility of the Kingdom not accepting international pilgrims to perform this this year’s Hajj, Moreso, there were disruptions in flights, particularly in the Middle East region.

However, while addressing a press conference in Makkah on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s Acting Director General of Passports, Major General Saleh Al-Murabba, announced that more than 1.518 million pilgrims had arrived from abroad as of Friday afternoon, with over 1.457 million of this figure arriving through designated airports.

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The figure excludes indigenes and expatriates resident in the Kingdom who have obtained permits to perform this year’s spiritual exercise.

According to Arab News, the figure exceeded the number of international pilgrims that arrived for the 2025 edition of the pilgrimage.

The newspaper reported that a total of 1,673,320 pilgrims performed last year’s Hajj, including 1,506,576 pilgrims from foreign countries.

Meanwhile, Saudi authorities have vowed that they would not allow this year’s Hajj to be exploited for any activities that violate its religious purpose, even as they expressed full readiness for the spiritual exercise.

Saudi newspaper, Saudi Gazette, quoted the Director, Public Security, who also doubles as Chairman of the Hajj Security Committee, Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Bassami, to have said at Friday’s press conference, “Our goal is for the pilgrim to reach his destination, perform his rituals and return safely to his homeland.”

According to him, pilgrims should focus solely on worship during the exercise, while authorities would take care of crowd management with focus on organising movement flows, distributing crowd density, and reducing route overlap as much as possible.