Nigerian Haji who fled Boko Haram died in Hajj stampede
Fatimah Abdullahi with agency reports
Three years after his family fled their northeastern Nigerian home to escape threats from Boko Haram militants, Mudasir Gambo must have thought his luck had arrived when he won a ticket to perform Haj.
But in a cruel twist of fate, the 19-year-old Gambo, who had memorized the Holy Qur’an when he was eight, was among more than 700 pilgrims killed in the Jamarat crush.
More than 50 mourners were gathered at the Gambo family’s modest three-bedroom house, moving by turns from a communal compound outdoors to pray inside for Gambo, who had been on his first trip outside Nigeria when he died.
“It was shocking. I felt traumatized, confused and very empty,” said the teenager’s father, Mallam Sallau Gambo, in a trembling voice.
“His death has left a very wide gap that can never be filled.”
The young Gambo, like many other Nigerians, including two members of Ogun State Tipper Owners’ Association lost their lives during a stampede that happened during stoning of Satan ritual in Saudi Arabia.
