Ethiopia’s House of People’s Representatives has declared Monday a national day of mourning for all 157 victims of Sunday’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office says the cause of the crash will be “communicated promptly to the public as updates come in.”
The prime minister visited the crash site earlier Sunday, as did the airline’s CEO. The plane had been en route to Nairobi.
Identities of the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines crash continue to emerge, along with condolences.
Many of the 35 countries that had victims are hurrying to confirm deaths and inform families.
The Russian Embassy in Ethiopia says the airline has identified the three Russians on board as Yekaterina Polyakova, Alexander Polyakov and Sergei Vyalikov. News reports identify the first two as husband and wife. State news agency RIA-Novosibirsk cites a consular official in Nairobi as saying all three were tourists.
Serbia’s foreign ministry confirms that a citizen was among those killed but gives no details. Local media identify the man as 54-year-old Djordje Vdovic. The Vecernje Novosti daily reports that he worked at the World Food Program.
An Italian aid group that partners with UNICEF in northern Africa says one of its founders, Paolo Dieci, is among the dead in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The International Committee for the Development of Peoples, known by its acronym CISP, in a statement said “the world of international cooperation has lost one of its most brilliant advocates and Italian civil society has lost a precious point of reference.”
UNICEF Italia sent a tweet of condolences over Dieci’s death. It noted that CISP was a UNICEF partner in Kenya, Libya and Algeria.
In all eight Italians were killed Sunday. Three belonged to the Bergamo-based humanitarian group Africa Tremila and one was the Sicily regional assessor to the culture ministry, officials said.
Germany’s foreign ministry says “we must unfortunately assume that German citizens are also among the victims of the plane crash in Ethiopia.”
Ethiopian Airlines’ list of nationalities for 150 of the 157 people on board included five from Germany. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi on Sunday morning.
German officials didn’t say how many Germans were believed to have been on board.
The ministry said German diplomats “are in close contact with Ethiopian Airlines and the Ethiopian authorities to get confirmed information as soon as possible.”
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