Louis Ibah

Two Nigerians were confirmed to be among the casualties as an Ethiopian Airline Boeing 737-800 MAX aircraft crashed at Debre Zeit, Ethiopia, shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, Kenya.

There were no survivors on the ill-fated aircraft which had 157 persons on board, comprising 149 passengers and 8 crew members.

Spokesman for Ethiopian Airline in Nigeria, Mr. Ikechuckwu Uko told Daily Sun that one of the Nigerians on board the crashed aircraft was Ambassador Abiodun Bashua (who flew with a United Nations passport), while the other is Kogi-born Prof. Pius Adesanmi (he was carrying a Canadian passport

“We lost one of our own: a high-profile Nigerian, Ambassador Abiodun Bashua in the crash. He was the former UN and AU Deputy Joint Special Representative in Darfur, Sudan,” Uko said.

He was a retired ambassador and on contractor with United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

Kenya had 32 of its nationals, Canada 18, Ethiopia 9, China 8, Italy 8, US 8, UK 7, France 7, Egypt 6, Germany 5 among other nationals on board the crashed aircraft.