Ecuador has declared three days of national mourning after the country’s intelligence chief, Michele Sensi-Contugi, was killed in a helicopter crash in Kenya along with his wife.
President Daniel Noboa ordered the mourning period from August 20 to 22 following the crash near Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County on Wednesday morning.
The decision was formalised through Executive Decree No. 476, according to Ecuador’s official presidential records. The country’s flags have been ordered to fly at half-mast at public buildings during the mourning period.
Sensi-Contugi, who headed Ecuador’s National Intelligence Centre, was among seven people killed when a Eurocopter EC130 B4 crashed at about 9:13 a.m. on Wednesday.
His wife, Stephany Hollihan, also died in the crash.
The helicopter was carrying six passengers and a pilot and was travelling from the Loisaba Conservancy towards the Ewaso Nyiro area when it went down in rugged terrain near Mount Ololokwe. There were no survivors.
Five of those killed were American citizens, according to the United States State Department. Among the victims was José Alberto Suárez, a senior Telemundo executive.
The crash has prompted a diplomatic response from several countries as authorities work to establish what caused the aircraft to go down.
Kenya’s Air Accident Investigation Department is investigating the crash. Rescue and recovery operations were complicated by the remote location, difficult terrain and a fire at the site.
For Ecuador, Sensi-Contugi’s death has also left a sudden vacancy at the head of its intelligence service. He had been appointed to lead the country’s intelligence agency by Mr Noboa in January 2024 and was later retained in the position.
The Ecuadorian government has begun arrangements to repatriate the bodies of Sensi-Contugi and his wife. The country is also preparing to honour the intelligence chief with a state funeral, according to reports from Ecuador.
The deaths have added an international dimension to the tragedy in Samburu, where a tourist flight carrying foreign visitors ended in one of Kenya’s deadliest recent helicopter accidents.
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