A helicopter of the United Nations mission in Congo (MONUSCO) has been shot down in the middle of a mission in North Kivu.
There were no survivors in the crash. All eight peacekeepers on board: six Pakistanis, one Russian and one Serb died, according to an official confirmation from the spokesman of the UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric, in New York.
MONUSCO had announced that it had lost contact with the aircraft on Tuesday while it was on a mission to assess the movement of people in the area, according to communications from the DRC’s armed forces.
The crash comes amid renewed tension between members of the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Congolese army in eastern DRC.
The Congolese army and the M23 rebels blamed each other for the crash. The M23, accused of carrying out regular attacks against the Congolese army since November, emerged from the ashes of the former Tutsi Congolese revolutionary army.
The organization, which has benefited in the past from the support of Rwanda and Uganda, accused Kinshasa of not respecting commitments to “demobilize their fighters.”
CD/lb/abj/APA