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At least 19 UN-affiliated personnel killed in Ethiopian crash: agency chief
UNITED NATIONS, United States, March 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 19
affiliated with the United Nations were among those killed in the crash
Sunday of an Ethiopian Airlines jet near Addis Ababa, according to the UN
migration agency chief.
Authorities said all 157 people on board were killed when the Boeing 737
crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa on a flight to Nairobi, where
the UN conference was being held.
“Early indications are that 19 staff members of UN affiliated organizations
perished,” said International Organization for Migration head Antonio
Vitorino.
“Numerous other staff members from at least five UN and affiliated
organizations are understood to have also perished,” he said. Along with the
IOM, the World Food Program, UN Refugee Agency, World Bank, UN Environment
Agency and others lost colleagues, he said.
Among the IOM staff on the plane was Anne Feigl, who worked for the
agency’s mission in Sudan.
Mission chief Catherine Northing remembered Feigl as “an extremely valued
colleague and popular staff member, committed and professional.”
Meanwhile World Food Program director David Beasley, who confirmed seven of
his staff had died, said: “As we mourn, let us reflect that each of these WFP
colleagues were willing to travel and work far from their homes and loved
ones to help make the world a better place to live.”
In a statement, Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo
Grandi, did not confirm the number of colleagues among the dead — but said
his agency had suffered a “huge loss.”
A UN source had earlier added that that freelance interpreters traveling to
a UN conference on the environment might also be among the dead.
Establishing the exact number of UN personnel on the flight was complicated
by the fact that some had informed the United Nations of their travel plans
while others had not, and not all were using their UN passports to travel,
the source said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened at the
tragic loss of lives.”
“He conveys his heartfelt sympathies and solidarity to the victims’
families and loved ones, including those of United Nations staff members, as
well as sincere condolences to the government and people of Ethiopia,” the
statement said.
“The United Nations is in contact with the Ethiopian authorities and
working closely with them to establish the details of United Nations
personnel who lost their lives in this tragedy.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/0836 hrs