Remains of 17 dead found at DR Congo plane crash site, UN says

The United Nations has confirmed that the remains of the 17 passengers on board an aid flight that went down in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday have been located in the vicinity of the crash site.

Seven UN staff were among those on the plane – operated by the United States-based company Air Serv – that crashed as it started its descent towards Bukavu, in the eastern Congolese province of South Kivu.

Search and rescue teams located the site of the accident, some 16 kilometres northwest of Bukavu airport.

“The process of positive identification of the remains will now be undertaken,” UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters in New York.

The victims include one Canadian and four Congolese employees of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), as well as one French citizen and one UN volunteer from India, both of whom worked for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Also on the plane were three members of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Handicap International Belgium and one employee of MSF-Holland. Four Congolese parliamentary administration members and two pilots were also on board.

Alan Doss, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the DRC, has voiced his deep sadness at the tragedy which claimed the lives of those working to ease the suffering of the Congolese population and to support the rebuilding of the country.

Immediately following the crash, Mr. Doss, who is also head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (known as MONUC), dispatched his deputy, Ross Mountain, to Bukavu to support aid operations and the humanitarian community. Mr. Mountain is the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the DRC as well as the UNDP Representative there.

Also concerning eastern DRC, the UN Mission has once again stressed the need for Congolese armed groups in the Kivu provinces to abide by a peace deal they signed with the Government in January, after clashes broke out between the two sides last week in Rutshuru in North Kivu.

“The gunfire has receded, but the situation remains critical and the truce fragile,” MONUC spokesperson Sylvie van den Wildenberg told a news conference yesterday. The Mission also strongly deplored the hostile demonstrations which took place on 2 September in Rutshuru against an international facilitation delegation which was on mission on the ground, she added.