Thirteen Sudanese died on Sunday in a stampede in a town southeast of the capital Khartoum where people gathered to register for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as hajj, officials said, dpa reported.
"The number of applications was larger than expected. The stampede began before opening the doors," Mohammed Al-Tayeb Al-Bashir, spokesman for the Gedaref local council, told dpa.
Thousands gathered outside a school in Gadaref to register for the hajj. One child was among those killed, Al-Bashir said.
Saudi Arabia recently reduced the quota for Sudanese and other pilgrims to the hajj by 20 percent.