A cargo plane that went missing after delivering materials for a presidential election in Congo has crashed the Congolese aviation firm Gomair has confirmed.
It was not clear how many people were on board, and there is no word yet on the number of causalities.
Air accidents are relatively frequent in Democratic Republic of Congo due to lax safety standards.
Gomair’s financial director, Jean de Dieu Gato Karekezi said he’s yet to have any information about casualties. The firm lost contact with the plane on Thursday evening as it was flying back to Kinshasa after delivering materials to Tshikapa, a city near the border with Angola.
“The plane has fallen and there are people on the ground,” Gomair’s financial director, Jean de Dieu Gato Karekezi, told Reuters by telephone
Karekezi said the plane had been rented by the national electoral commission (CENI) to deliver election materials. A CENI spokeswoman said the agent who had taken the flight to Tshikapa had stayed there, but she did not provide any further information.
The incident follows a tumultuous week in Democratic Republic of Congo, which has seen the long-anticipated election postponed for a week due to logistical issues, clashes between protesters and police, and the deaths of over 100 people in fights between ethnic groups in the northwest.
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