Ethiopian plane crash: Police confirms that Christian Alalo, AMISOM Police Commissioner’s remains have been retrieved
Boeing 737 Max 8s, an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302, on March 10, 2019, Sunday morning crashed into the field six minutes after take-off, on its way, from Bole International Airport, in Addis Ababa Ethiopian capital, en route to Nairobi, Kenya.
This tragic Ethiopian plane crash incident happened shortly after take-off. The plane left at 8:38am on Sunday morning, but six minutes on its way, it lost contact with the air traffic control.
Ethiopian Airlines said the senior pilot lost all contacts shortly after releasing a distress call and was asked to make a U-turn, but eventually, the plane flowed into the ground, before making the emergency landing.
The plane crashed in clear weather conditions around Bishoftu, 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the capital Addis Ababa, killing all the passengers on board from 35 countries.
That includes; China, Italy, Britain, Egypt, German, India, Slovakia, USA, Canada, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.
Among all these countries which had people on board, Kenya lost the biggest number, which is 32 people.
The Ethiopian plane crash was characterised by streaming smoke and sparks, killing 149 passengers and 8 flight crew aboard, totalling up to 157 people.
Among the dead aboard Ethiopian plane crash included two Ugandan nationals; one of the two was Christian Alalo, who was the AMISOM Police Commissioner.
Alalo died while on duty, she was from Italy, where she had gone to attend a Gender Protection Course, heading to Mogadishu, Somalia. At the time of her death, she had worked for eight years as the acting commissioner, surviving with two sons.
However, after the incident, few remains were identified, and experts cautioned that identification of other remains are expected to take a long time, probably weeks or months, because of the fire that consumed them beyond recognition, and to some, a DNA test will be conducted to prove their identity.
However, Police have confirmed that Alalo’s remains have been retrieved, 7 months after the Plane crash, following communication sent to Uganda Police Force, from the Ethiopian government and Ethiopian Airlines.
In a communique issued on Monday 28, 2019, by Fred Enanga, Police Spokesperson, he revealed that Alalo’s remains were identified by the help of DNA samples, that were drawn from her sons and brothers.
He adds that Police and the family are in preparations to return Alalo’s remains back home for a decent burial.
“Arrangements are now in place to repatriate the remains to Uganda for burial. The Ethiopian government and Ethiopian airlines are working closely with two brothers James Gregory Okello and Peter Eramu. They have already submitted their travel documents,” Enanga stated.
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Enanga adds that they arrived at an agreement that Alalo’s brothers Okello and Eramu travel to Addis Ababa between November, 5 and 7, 2019, to process the return of her remains.
More to that, Enanga revealed that A-plus funeral services have been contacted to take charge of transporting Alalo’s remains.
Christian Alalo served Uganda Police Force for 17 years. She joined on August 18, 2001, she served as the Officer in Charge (OC) Lira District, DPC Entebbe, Staff Officer of the Directorate of Human Resource Management, United Nations (UN) Mission in Sudan, Commissioner of Child and Family Protection Department and in 2015, Alalo was appointed as Deputy Commissioner AMISOM in Somalia.
Alalo won the European Union’s Human Rights Defender Prize in June 2014, after she excelled in the Child and Family Protection Unit Department she headed, before leaving for AMISOM.
She also served as a Peacekeeper from 2007 to 2009, in the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNIMIS).
