Nigerian pilgrims die en route to Senegal

A fatal accident in Senegal has claimed the lives of at least 10 Nigerian pilgrims, according to report late Monday evening.
The accident involved a mini van carrying Nigerian pilgrims, followers of the Tijania brotherhood, who were on their way to the religious city of Kaolack in Senegal, ahead of the Nyassend Gamo. This occasion is in celebration of Maoulud Nabbi or the birth of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH).
Television pictures showed dead bodies of victims lying at the scene of the accident, where the mini van carrying the Nigerian pilgrims reportedly collided with a bigger truck, late Monday afternoon.
The Nyassend Gamo is one of a number of major religious gatherings that take place in this mainly religious country. Unlike others, this one is hosted across a number of religious cities in the country, including Tivaoune and the Mourid base of Touba, home of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, another highly revered disciple of the Tijania Thariqa.
Bia Nyass or Shiekh El Islam, as he is reverentially referred to by his followers, was a prominent missionary of the Tijania brotherhood, and lived in the city of Kaolack. He is on record for having spread the Islamic religion to seventy-five countries out of the 115 countries that existed during his lifetime, authoring seventy-five Islamic books. With a major concentration in the Senegambia region, Bai Nyass’ followers are scattered across the whole of West Africa and beyond, where he reportedly established numerous Islamic schools.
With a worldwide following of about seventy-five million disciples, he is said to have a strong following among the mainly Muslim Northern Nigeria, from where a substantial number of pilgrims travel every year to attend the celebrations.
Sheikh Ibrahim Nyass died in 1975 at St. Thomas Hospital in London, England, at the age of seventy-five.