Nigerian-born Canadian professor and writer Pius Adesanmi has been named among the victims of Sunday's air disaster in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Airlines flight was en route from Addis Ababa to Kenya's capital, Nairobi, but crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.

Mr Adesanmi was traveling from Canada to Nairobi to attend an African Union, Economic, Social and Cultural Council meeting.

The community of Nigerian writers, scholars and journalists said, in a statement on Facebook, that it was dealing with the "painful loss of our friend".

He was active on social media, where he "flagellated the Nigerian ruling class" with well-thought essays, amassing a huge following in the process.

Until his death, Mr Adesanmi was a professor of English and the director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University in Canada.

He is survived by a wife and two daughters.

He won several awards, including a 2017 Canada Bureau of International Education Leadership Award, the Penguin Prize for African Writing in the Non-Fiction category for his book You’re Not a Country, Africa and the Association of Nigerian Authors' Poetry prize for his poetry collection The Wayfarer and Other Poems.

News of his death has triggered a lot of reactions on social media in Nigeria and other countries on the continent.

Nigerian author Elnathan John has been tweeting about the last time he met Prof Adesanmi.