Professor Abiodun Oluremi Bashua has been confirmed as the second Nigerian victim of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines.
Aged 68, Bashua is a former United Nations(UN) and African Union(AU) Deputy Joint Special Representative for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). He was one of the passengers aboard the ill-fated Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed earlier today and was until his death based in Addis Ababa where he was a consultant.
Bashua served in UNAMID since August 2009 at various senior levels, including as Director of Political Affairs and most recently as Director of the Joint Support and Coordination Mechanism.
He also has extensive experience in several United Nations Peacekeeping operations in Africa, including Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan. He has also served as Secretary to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in French Language from the University of Besancon, France and a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Sociology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
He was born in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1951.