Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) – Families of victims of the crash of Air Algeria’s flight AH5017 are angry at the Algerian company.
The honorary chairperson of the Burkinabe Movement for Human and Peoples Rights, Halidou Ouédraogo, whose daughter died in the crash, said: “They played a lot with our feelings. They did not give us any information though they had it.”
He said there were too many contradictions in the information released to parents of the victims.
“The plane has disappeared – it has disintegrated in northern Gao – it has crashed at 50 km inside the borders of Mali near Burkina… This is all very contradictory,” he added.
Air Algeria’s flight AH 5017, linking Ouagadougou to Algiers, crashed Thursday in northern Mali at about 50 km from the border with Burkina Faso in the Malian zone of Gossi, less than an hour after it took off with 110 passengers from 16 countries and six crew members.
According to the Burkinabe government, no passenger of the plane survived.
“I think this region is covered by drones, by the military, it is a high security region. It is not possible that they cannot spot a plane as soon as it crashed,” Ouédraogo said.
The representative of an NGO from Luxembourg, Pierre Nikiéma, whose chairperson was on board the crashed plane, said that the Algerian company “cannot discharge its duty properly”.
“People told me very late that this was not a good company but our chairman was already on the plane. When I woke up, I learnt that it had crashed”, he said.
The authorities in Burkina Faso have declared a 48-hour national mourning from Friday.
A crisis cell has been put in place at the Ouagadougou international airport to support the families of the victims and to give them information about the tragic accident.
