Hundreds of Nigerian Muslims preparing for this year’s Umrah pilgrimage have been stranded after the escalating United States/Israel-Iran war disrupted flight operations across the Middle East, forcing airlines to cancel services and leaving intending pilgrims and travel agents counting millions of naira in losses.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that many of the affected pilgrims had already obtained visas and paid for flights and accommodation in Mecca and Medina before airlines began suspending services across parts of the Middle East due to the conflict.
Some of the intending pilgrims, who spoke to our correspondent, said they were scheduled to depart Nigeria between March 4 and 6 for the holy pilgrimage but were unable to travel after several airlines cancelled or suspended operations in the region.
Umrah is a lesser Hajj performed by Muslims all year round in Saudi Arabia, but it usually draws large numbers of Islamic faithful during Ramadan.
Millions of Muslims usually perform Umrah during the last 10 days of Ramadan.
Available records show that over 122 million Muslims performed Umrah during the 2025 Ramadan period.
However, the scale of strikes by Iran on US military bases and other target areas in the Middle East has forced many airlines to suspend flights in Gulf states.
On February 28, US President Donald Trump and Israel declared war on Iran, killing the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after missiles struck his office in Tehran.
Dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury,’ both the US and Israeli militaries launched strikes against targets in Iranian cities, triggering explosions and columns of smoke.
This followed months of simmering tensions and a total collapse of diplomacy and negotiations between the US and Iran over the development of nuclear weapons by the Islamic Republic.
Speaking from the Mar-a-Lago Situation Room on Friday, Trump framed the offensive as a pre-emptive necessity to neutralise Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Tehran also launched retaliatory missile and drone attacks across several countries in the Middle East and nearby regions, targeting US bases, allied facilities and strategic infrastructure.
Iran’s retaliation, codenamed, ‘Truthful Promise 4,’ also saw dozens of missiles launched toward Israel.
Tehran has attacked military bases and assets in about 10 countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Oman.
airspace routes such as Doha and Dubai, while Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE all announced at least partial closures of their skies after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Similarly, many airlines, including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Air France, Turkish Airlines, EgyptAir and Ethiopian Airlines, cancelled services in the region due to the tensions.
Umrah plans disrupted
The cancellation of services by the airlines disrupted the Umrah plans of many Nigerian Muslims who had made the necessary arrangements for the trip.
Saturday PUNCH gathered that a local government chairman in Ilorin, Kwara State, and two other government officials were affected by the cancellation of airline services.
The intending pilgrims, according to one of them who spoke with Saturday PUNCH on condition of anonymity, were to leave Nigeria on March 4 with Emirates Airline.