Over half a million worshippers, among them 350,000 pilgrims, are expected to perform Friday prayer at the Prophet's Mosque today. Hasan Bin Hamid Al-Bakri, Director of the Ministry of Haj branch, said that authorities were continuing to receive and group pilgrims, assist the sick and persons with exceptional needs, and help them complete procedures as quickly as possible in view of their conditions. Not all arrangements have gone smoothly, however. Wednesday evening saw the arrival of 3,000 Nigerian pilgrims for whom accommodation could not be provided, forcing committees to leave them for several hours at the land pilgrim station on Al-Hijra Road. Al-Bakri said the problem lies in a discrepancy between the timing of their arrival in Madina and the dates in their contracts for accommodation. “They also arrived in batches without scheduling,” Al-Bakri said, “making difficult the process for their accommodation. The arrival of flights for the majority of Nigerian pilgrims was different from the schedules they were provided with, leaving them without accommodation when they arrived.” Al-Bakri said that the ministry had ordered the owner of the residences with which the 3,000 pilgrims had signed contracts to secure accommodation for them, despite recognizing that the residential group shared no blame for the error which was due to the discrepancy between the stated time of arrival and times on the accommodation contracts. Over 455,369 pilgrims had arrived in Madina by Thursday, while departing pilgrims numbered 191,432. Over 12,000 additional carpets have been supplied to the courtyards of the Haram and on roofs to accommodate the number of visitors, with internal courtyards having room for 170,000 worshippers, the roof accommodating 90,000, and external courtyards 200,000.
