Burkina Faso Works On IDing Flight 5017 Victims By Using DNA From Families


As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Air Algérie Flight 5017 crashed in a desert in the south of Mali, early July 24. It was on its way to Algiers, Algeria but crashed shortly after leaving Ougadougou, Burkina Faso.

Mali is just 31 miles outside the Burkina Faso border.

Burkina Faso authorities have confirmed that there was initially meant to be 118 people on board the doomed flight, but 2 passengers failed to show up. According to Burkina officials, there were 27 people from Burkina Faso, 51 French, eight Lebanese, six Algerians, five Canadians, four Germans, two from Luxembourg, and one from Cameroon. The nationality of the rest of the crash victims remains unknown, hopefully not for long.

French experts have arrived in Burkina Faso in order to collect DNA samples from relatives of the casualties. They are hoping that having the familial DNA on hand will aid them in identifying the bodies and returning them to their families.

It’s very important that the bodies are identified. Not only for the records of the crash, but because loved ones are looking for closure and a chance to say “goodbye.”

One of the victims, Winmalo Somda, was born in Burkina Faso but moved to Canada only about six years ago. His engineering professor at Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure, Guy Gauthier, remembered him fondly to the National Post:

“He was truly an exemplary student. You’d love to have a class full of people like him. He was very hardworking, but he was endearing too, always smiling and positive. When I heard the news last night, I cried for a long time. He was really someone special.”

Somda was with his wife, Angélique Kpoda, and their two children, Nathanael and Arielle. They were on their way home to Canada after a celebration with family in Burkina Faso.

It’s difficult to give the victims of horrible disasters their identities back. Many times it can take months or years. In wide-scale disasters (like wars or terrorist attacks), the identification process may never be finished.

Some families never receive closure.

Luckily, the experts in Burkina Faso have a list of names to work off of and their plan to use the DNA of family members to expedite the process is one that is probably going to succeed.

Although two black boxes were found at the crash site, they were in bad shape. Burkina Faso officials are unsure if they’ll ever know the truth behind the crash of Air Algérie Flight 5017. In the meantime, they will hopefully be able to identify all 116 victims.

[Image courtesy of AOL ]

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