Dubai: The Ethiopian Airlines flight ET302 carrying 157 people crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ethiopian capital on Sunday, killing everyone on board.
At least 35 nationalities were among the dead; 12 are Arabs.
Here’s what we know of them so far.
Six Egyptians, two Moroccans and one Sudan, Somali, a Saudi and a Yemeni were on board of the ill-fated flight that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on Sunday en route to Nairobi.
Moroccan victim flew on ill-fated Flight 302 on his birthday
Morocco lost two of its citizens in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
One of them was an official of the Ministry of Energy, Dr. Ben Ahmed Chihab, who specializes in biodiversity and ecological issues.
Dr. Chihab was on his way to Nairobi to attend a conference on the Convention on Biodiversity.
Upon learning about Chihab’s death in the tragic ET302 plane crash, many public figures, including the Energy Minister Aziz Rabbah, expressed words of condolence to his family through social media.
It has been reported that Chihab died on the same day as his birthday, March 10. He was due to attend the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly, which runs from March 11-15, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya.
On his official Facebook page, there were several messages to congratulate him on his birthday.
Upon the announcement of his death, messages of condolence poured out on the page.
The second Moroccan on the flight was El Hassan Sayouty, a doctor at the University of Hassan II, in Casablanca.
Translators and Agricultural experts from Egypt
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on its facebook page an official statement, identified the victims as Ashraf Turki, Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam, Abdel Hameed Farag, Suzanne Farag, Esmat Taha Aransa and Nasser Fathy El Azb.
The Egyptian Agricultural Professions Union said three researchers belonging to that organization were among those who died in the accident.
According to them, the experts were going to a scientific mission to Nairobi to study animal and plant genetic production improvement.
They were Ashraf Turki, Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam, Abdel-Hameed Farag,
Two of the other victims were veteran freelance translators who had worked with regional and international organizations and the African Union.
Suzanne Farag and Esmat Taha Aransa were en route to Nairobi for work-related reasons.
Namira Negm, legal counsel for the African Union and a former Egyptian ambassador to Rwanda, wrote in a Facebook post that Susan and Asmat were interpreters for the African Union and had been flying to attend the UN conference in Nairobi.
The International Association of Conference Interpreters confirmed that three of its members and the daughter of another were passengers on the flight.
“It has been the saddest day in AIIC history,” wrote communications officer Martin Field.
“Visa” employer
The sixth identified Egyptian was Naser El Azb, 55 years-old, and works for global “Visa” organization and he was on his way to Nairobi to attend a conference for his company.
The Saudi recruiter
Saad Khalaf Al Mutairi, 36-years-old and a father of two, was in the Ethiopian capital to hire workers for jobs in Saudi Arabia. His family said he worked in an X-ray department in the King Saud Medical City for the last 11 years.
Sudanese doctor
The Sudanese mission in Addis Ababa announced the death of one of its citizens, Hisham Abdelkader Abu Kalam, 35, saying he was a veterinarian and a graduate from Al Jazeera University, specialized from in Animal Production and Health.
Hisham was on a business trip to Kenya.
Yemeni a resident of Kenya
In Yemen, local news reports confirmed the death of a Yemeni businessman living in Kenya, called Abdul Jalil Ghazi, who is in his fifth decade.
Activists on social networking sites said Ghazi is a businessman in Kenya, belongs to Dhamar, central Yemen, and has children aged 15 and over.
There was no official statement from the Yemeni government about Ghazi's death.
Somali government official
In Somalia, the government announced the death of Abdul Shakur Mohammad Shahad, an official at the office of the Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khairi.
The Somali prime minister offered his condolences to the victim's family and the government said Shahad was on his way to Mogadishu via Kenya after returning from a trip abroad.
The government also announced the death of six other Somalis with Canadian citizenship, counted among the 18 Canadians killed in the incident.
