Ethiopian crash victims were aid workers, doctors, academics
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Three Austrian physicians. The co-founder of an international aid organization. A career ambassador. The wife and children of a Slovak legislator. A Nigerian-born Canadian college professor and satirist.
They were among the 157 people from 35 countries who died Sunday morning when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, Kenya. Here are some of their stories.
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Kenya: 32 victims
- Hussein Swaleh, the former secretary general of the Football Kenya Federation, was named as being among the dead by Sofapaka Football Club. He was returning home after working as the match commissioner in an African Champions League game in Egypt on Friday.
- Cedric Asiavugwa, who studied international business and economic law at Georgetown University in Washington, was on his way to Nairobi after the death of his fiancee's mother, the university said in a statement.
- The aid organization CARE says Kenyan colleague Immaculate Odero was among the crash victims.
A statement says she had been a regional security officer for the Horn of Africa, "dedicated to keeping her colleagues in the region safe." She took on her role "with great enthusiasm."
It says she was married, with a daughter.
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Canada: 18 victims
- Pius Adesanmi, a Nigerian professor with Carleton University in Ottawa, was on his way to a meeting of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council in Nairobi, Nigeria's representative to the panel, John O. Oba, told The Associated Press.
Adesanmi is the author of "Naija No Dey Carry Last," a collection of satirical essays.
"Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy," said Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton's president and vice chancellor.
Adesanmi was the winner of the inaugural Penguin Prize for African non-fiction writing in 2010.
- Amina Ibrahim Odowaa, 33, and her 5-year-old daughter, Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir, were on board the jet. Odowaa's brother, Mohamed Hassan Ali, said they lived in Edmonton and were traveling to Kenya to visit with relatives.
- Derick Lwugi, an accountant with the City of Calgary, was also among the victims, his wife, Gladys Kivia, said. He leaves behind three children, aged 17, 19 and 20. Lwugi had been headed to Kenya to visit both of their parents.
- Jessica Hyba, 43, had worked as a senior external relations officer with the U.N. refugee agency in Mogadishu, Somalia, since February. She joined the agency in 2013 in Iraq, and before that worked for Care Canada, Care International and UNICEF. She leaves behind a family including two daughters, aged 9 and 12.
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Ethiopia: 9 victims
- Catholic Relief Services said four of its Ethiopian staff members died. The aid group in a statement said Sara Chalachew, Getnet Alemayehu, Sintayehu Aymeku, and Mulusew Alemu had been traveling to Nairobi for training.
The four had worked with the organization for as long as a decade. They worked in procurement, logistics and finance.
- The aid group Save the Children said an Ethiopian colleague died in the crash.
Tamirat Mulu Demessie was a technical adviser on child protection in emergencies and "worked tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable children are safe during humanitarian crises," the group said in a statement.
- Tearful colleagues mourned Ethiopian Airlines pilot Yared Getachew and first officer Ahmed Noorh. Another Ethiopian Airlines captain, Estifanos Mulugeta, said that he had flown to Nairobi with Yared several times and "he likes to fly to Nairobi because his parents live in that city."
A first officer, Hamza Jemal, said Ahmed had been going to Nairobi to pursue a business venture and had managed to rearrange his schedule to be on the flight.
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China: 8 victims
- A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Addis Ababa said the Chinese victims were five men and three women, including one person from the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said two United Nations workers were among the eight Chinese killed. Four were working for a Chinese company and two had travelled to Ethiopia for "private matters."
The World Food Program identified one of the victims as Rome-based Zhen-Zhen Huang, 46.
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Italy: 8 victims
- Paolo Dieci, one of the founders of the International Committee for the Development of Peoples, was among the dead, the group said on its website.
"The world of international cooperation has lost one of its most brilliant advocates and Italian civil society has lost a precious point of reference," wrote the group, which partners with UNICEF in northern Africa. UNICEF Italia sent a tweet of condolences over Dieci's death, noting that the group was a partner in Kenya, Libya and Algeria.
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