I am not afraid — Last year’s stampede survivor

Mina — As pilgrims from around the world symbolically stoned the devil on Monday, the memory of a deadly stampede during last year’s stoning ritual remains all too real for Kassoum Kouanda. Injured in the crush which killed his three companions, he vividly recalled the tragedy — and explained why his young wife is attending this year’s pilgrimage. Kouanda, 50, of Burkina Faso in West Africa, is manager of a transport and logistics company. This is his testimony: “I was with three other people, two friends and the imam of our local mosque who had been to Mecca three times. All three of them died,” he said by telephone shortly before the start of this year’s Haj on Saturday. “I am alive. I don’t know how. Only God can knows. “We were marching to ‘stone the devil’ when we heard cries coming from the east. “We were sandwiched between those heading toward the pillar to stone the devil and the ones coming back, on the east side,” between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. “I just remember that I got on a dead body to reach the roof of a building. Police came to evacuate us. It was very hot. “I was immobilized because I have nerve problems and am a bit asthmatic. Getting up to the roof I was hurt in the arms and feet but today it’s OK, even if I still carry the scars. “It’s God who knows how I got out alive and, returning to Burkina, I resolved that if God again gave me the means I would send my wife for Haj while she is still young. “But I gave her clear orders. I told her to follow the official guidelines and not people who say they have gone there several times and they know the place,” Kouanda said. Officials have similarly told pilgrims to follow the rules. “If I am able in coming years, I will send other relatives so that they too can have blessings, but I am not afraid because only God alone knows when you will die.”