Humanitarians among plane crash victims
ADDIS ABABA-TO-NAIROBI FLIGHT A POPULAR ROUTE FOR HUMANITARIANS
Environmental activists, aid delegates, charity workers, human rights advocates, doctors — many of those killed on Ethiopia’s Flight 302 were humanitarians from around the globe.
Of the 18 Canadians killed, four — three volunteers and a staff member — were working for the United Nations Association in Canada (UNAC) — an Ottawa-based group that raises global awareness and promotes multilateralism.
Danielle Moore, 24, a marine biology student from Winnipeg; Micah Messent, an environmentalist from Courtenay, British Columbia, and Angela Rehhorn, a conservationist with the Canadian Wildlife Federation, were chosen to attend the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi. Staffer Stephanie Lacroix was joining them.
“I feel beyond privileged to be receiving this opportunity,” Moore wrote on Facebook before leaving.
In an Instagram post, Messent said he was grateful to “have the chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation.”
“At most UN conferences there are opportunities for civil society groups to be engaged and it is in that capacity that our four young people were headed to Nairobi,” Joan Broughton, a UNAC spokeswoman, told the National Post.
“These were just young people at the beginning of a lifelong adventure.”
Broughton said the trio were chosen because of their community service at home, as well as for their interest in global affairs. They had all participated in the Canada Service Corps, a federal initiative launched last year that encourages young Canadians to become involved in volunteer work and develop leadership skills.
Kate White, UNAC’S CEO, said the four would be remembered for their “compassion, leadership and dedication to making the world a better place.”
Six members of an Ontario family, including two teenage sisters, were also among the Canadians killed.
The Peel District School Board said the girls, Ashka and Anushka Dixit, were travelling on the doomed Ethiopian Airlines jetliner with their parents and grandparents when it crashed moments after takeoff from Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa on Sunday. All 157 people on board were killed.
The crash victims came from a who’s who of charity and welfare organizations — CARE, the International Committee for the Development of Peoples, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Italian humanitarian agency Africa Tremila, the International Organization for Migration, Civil Rights Defenders, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Norwegian Red Cross.
The 157 victims represented more than 30 nationalities, a testament to how international the route between East Africa’s two premier cities has become. Addis Ababa, home to the African Union, has been called the region’s political capital, while vibrant Nairobi is the commercial capital.
Both host regional headquarters for several international institutions and have large populations of expatriates. Addis Ababa is the location of the UN Economic Council on Africa, while the World Food Program, the United Nations’ refugee agency and its children’s agency, UNICEF, all have their regional headquarters in Nairobi.
The United Nations was the hardest-hit organization. Many of the 21 UN staffers on board were travelling to Nairobi for a UN environmental conference, which opened Monday with flags at halfstaff and a minute of silence for the victims. The Ethiopian Airlines flight had even been nicknamed the “UN shuttle” because of how often UN staff members take it, the New York Times reported.
“A global tragedy has hit close to home and the United Nations is united in grief,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Monday. “(The victims) all had one thing in common — a spirit to serve the people of the world and to make it a better place for us all.”
Kenya suffered the biggest loss among the countries represented, losing 32 of its citizens.
Airlines in Ethiopia, China, and Indonesia grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner Monday after the second crash of one of the planes in five months. The crash was similar to that of a Lion Air jet of the same model in Indonesian seas last year, killing 189 people.
But Boeing said it had no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies. Air Canada has 24 Boeing 737 Max 8 planes that fly routes that include Vancouver-to-montreal and Calgary-to-vancouver. Westjet operates 13. Neither airline plans to ground its planes.
On Monday, tributes poured in for the Canadian victims who also included a mother and daughter from Edmonton, a renowned Carleton University professor and an accountant with the City of Calgary.
Mohamed Hassan Ali said his sister, Amina Ibrahim Odowaa, and her five-yearold daughter, Sofia Faisal Abdulkadir, were on board.
“(She was) a very nice person, very outgoing, very friendly. Had a lot of friends,” he said of his sister, who lived in Edmonton and was travelling to Kenya to visit with relatives.
Carleton University confirmed Pius Adesanmi, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, was also killed in the crash.
Benoit-antoine Bacon, the school’s president and vice-chancellor, described him as a “global thinker,” and a “towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship.”
Gladys Kivia, a domestic violence counsellor with the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, said her husband, Derick Lwugi, was among the victims. The accountant who worked for the city leaves behind three children, aged 17, 19 and 20, Kivia said. The couple had been in Calgary for 12 years, and Lwugi had been headed to Kenya to visit both of their parents.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “deeply saddened” by the crash.
“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our heartfelt condolences to those who have lost family, friends, and loved ones as a result of this tragedy,” he said in a statement.
It was not clear what caused the Ethiopian Airlines plane to go down in clear weather six minutes after departing Bole Airport.
A witness to the crash told The Associated Press that smoke was coming from the rear of the plane before it hit the ground.
Investigators have found the jetliner’s two flight recorders. An airline official, however, said one of the recorders was partially damaged and “we will see what we can retrieve from it.”
What little was left of the jet was heartbreaking: A battered passport. A shredded book. Business cards in many languages.
There was even a plaintively ringing mobile phone, picked up by a stranger and then silenced.