Aid workers lost by the dozen in jetliner crash

Africa-based relief programs left in shock

They worked to bring food to the hungry, medicine to the sick and clean water to people living in areas without it. Among the 157 people who died in the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner Sunday were dozens of international aid workers hailing from several countries in Africa and around the globe.

Described as dedicated and impassioned employees of non-profit environmental, medical, immigration and refugee organizations, they lost their lives alongside pastors, professors, cultural ambassadors, police chiefs and respected writers and sports leaders. All were on board the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner when it crashed shortly after takeoff.

At least five Ethiopian nationals who worked for aid agencies died in the crash. Save the Children mourned the loss of Tamirat Mulu Demessie, a technical adviser on child protection in emergencies who “worked tirelessly to ensure that vulnerable children are safe during humanitarian crises,” the group said in a statement.

Catholic Relief Services lost four Ethiopian staff members in the crash, some of whom had worked with the organization for as long as a decade. The four were travelling to Nairobi, Kenya, for training, the group said in a statement.

Immaculate Odero of Kenya, who served as CARE’S regional security officer for the Horn of Africa, was “dedicated to keeping her colleagues in the region safe,” and took on her role “with great enthusiasm,” the agency said.

Irishman Michael Ryan was among the seven dead from the United Nations’ World Food Program. The Rome-based aid worker and engineer known as Mick was formerly from Lahinch in County Clare in Ireland’s west.

His projects have included creating safe ground for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and assessing the damage to rural roads in Nepal that were blocked by landslides.

“Michael was doing lifechanging work in Africa,” Irish premier Leo Varadkar said.

Mombasa, Kenya, native Cedric Asiavugwa worked with groups helping refugees in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania before he enrolled in law school at Georgetown University, the university said.

Also a student of international business and economic law at Georgetown, Asiavugwa was remembered by family and friends as a “kind, compassionate and gentle soul.”

In Italy, the International Committee for the Development of Peoples mourned the loss of one its founders, Paolo Dieci.

“The world of international co-operation 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.

Three Italians working with humanitarian agency Africa Tremila — treasurer Matteo Ravasio, Carlo Spini and his wife, Gabriella Viggiani — were also killed.

Italian TV channel Rai reported that Spini was a retired doctor whose “love for Africa” had intensified after his retirement.

Joanna Toole, a 36-yearold from Exmouth, Devon, was heading to Nairobi to attend the United Nations Environment Assembly.

Toole was “bonkers” about animals her entire life, and her work “was not a job — it was her vocation,” according to her father, Adrian Toole, who said Monday that his daughter had travelled to the remote Faroe Islands to prevent whaling.

Karim Saafi was co-chair and “foremost brother” of the African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe, the group said on its Facebook page. The 38-year-old French-tunisian, who left behind a fiancée, was on an official mission representing the group at the time of the crash, the group said.

Explorers, preachers, professors and police chiefs were among others who lost their lives.

Sarah Auffret, a FrenchBritish national living in Tromsoe, northern Norway, worked with the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. She was on her way to Nairobi to talk about a Clean Seas project in connection with the UN Environment Assembly this week, the company said in a statement.

Abiodun Oluremi Bashu was an ex-ambassador and career officer with the Nigerian Foreign Service, the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Bashu was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1951 and joined the foreign service in 1976.

He had served in different capacities both at headquarters and foreign missions such as Vienna, Austria, Abidjan, Cote d’ivoire and Tehran, Iran.

The Norwegian Refugee Council, which works with displaced people in crisis zones, confirmed Monday that two staff members were passengers on the flight.

Karoline Aadland, 28, a program finance coordinator for the Norwegian Red Cross, died on the flight, according to a statement posted on the organization’s Twitter account.

Six Egyptian citizens were among the victims. Namira Negm, a legal adviser to the African Union and a former Egyptian ambassador to Rwanda, wrote in a Facebook post that two of the Egyptians, Susan Abu Faraj and Asmat Arnasa, were interpreters for the African Union who had been flying to attend the UN conference in Nairobi.

The International Association of Conference Interpreters confirmed that members were “devastated to learn that at least three AIIC colleagues and the daughter of another were passengers on the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302.”

“It has been the saddest day in AIIC history,” communications officer Martin Field wrote.