There were passengers from at least 35 countries on board the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 that crashed near Addis Ababa yesterday, killing 149 passengers and eight crew members.

Confirming this at a press conference in Addis Ababa last night, Kenya's Transport Minister James Macharia said there were 32 Kenyans on board, 18 Canadians, eight Chinese nationals and five Dutch passengers.

Other nationals were six from Egypt, nine from Ethiopia, seven each from France and the UK, four from India, eight from Italy, four from Slovakia and eight from the US. The nationality of two other passengers could not be ascertained.

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The passenger jet, which crashed minutes after take off, was en route to Nairobi from Addis Ababa and was also reported to have had on board passengers who were headed for a United Nations Environment conference in Nairobi.

Meanwhile, in reply to a query from Bernama International News Service, UN Environment communications officer Shari Nijman said UN Environment was deeply saddened by the news of the Ethiopian Airlines accident.

“We are following developments closely,” UN Environment said in an official statement issued yesterday.

Shari Nijman also said the UN body was liaising with officials on who may have been on the plane.

- NNN-Bernama