Late Esmat Taha Aransa (L) and Suzanne Abu Farag (R)(Photo:Facebook)
The Egyptian foreign ministry announced on Monday the names of the six Egyptians who were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines crashed minutes after take off fromAddis Ababa on Sunday, killing all 149 passengers and eight crew members.
In an official statement issued on Monday, the foreign ministry identified the victims as Ashraf Turki, Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam, Abdel-Hameed Farag, Suzanne Abu Farag, Esmat Taha Aransa and Nasser Fathy El-Azb.
The ministry said that it is following up on the matter with Ethiopian authorities, and is helping the victims' families identify their relatives through DNA testing.
Egypt's Agricultural Professions Syndicate has said that three agricultural researchers who were members of the union were among those killed in the crash.
The victims were Ashraf Turki, the head of the classification department at the Institute Of Plant Protection, and assistant researchers Doaa Atef Abdel-Salam and Abdel-Hameed Farag from the animal production research department at the Desert Research Institute.
The syndicate said that the researchers were on a scientific mission to Nairobi to study improving animal and plant genetic production.
Minister of Agriculture Ezz El-Din Abu Steit released a statement on Monday mourning the researchers.
Two of the other victims, Suzanne Abu Farag and Esmat Taha Aransa, were veteran freelance translators who had worked with regional and international organisations like the League of Arab States and the African Union.
Friends of the victims have said online that Abu Farag and Aransa were heading to Nairobi to participate in a UN conference.
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