Monitoring Desk
KIGALI, RWANDA: Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) fighter jet that had “violated Rwanda’s airspace” was fired upon by the Rwandan military on Tuesday.
Before it was struck, a plane was seen flying low over the DR Congo-Rwanda western border from the town of Kitshanga in the Masisi area of the Congo, according to witnesses in the town of Goma. A fire-fighting truck intervened on the runway to stop the plane from entirely catching fire, according to witnesses. The plane managed to land at Goma airport, which is close to the Rwandan border.
Fighter jet violated Country’s airspace
According to sources in the Congolese military, the Sukhoi-25 aircraft activated its missile defence system after spotting the strike to stop the shelling. The fighter plane from the Democratic Republic of the Congo had violated the country’s airspace, according to a brief statement from the office of the Rwandan government spokesperson. According to the report, a Sukhoi-25 from the Congo violated Rwanda’s airspace three times on January 24 at 5:03 p.m. Defensive actions were taken.
DR Congo, on the other hand, said the plane was targeted while operating in its own airspace. In a statement, it was stated that the DR Congo government vehemently opposes and denounces the Rwandan army’s attack on its fighter plane in Congolese airspace and does not intend to let it go. As the fighter jet was starting to land on the runway at Goma International Airport, it was attacked. It did not travel over the airspace above Rwanda.
The government declared that it “regards the incident as an act of aggression aimed primarily at disrupting current peace efforts in the framework of the Luanda and Nairobi discussions,” noting that the aircraft landed without suffering significant material damage. The event is the most recent to increase tensions between the two close neighbors, whose relations have been strained recently as a result of M23 rebels clashing with government forces in eastern Congo.
Fresh fighting began Tuesday morning in eastern Congo between government forces and M23 rebels in multiple localities in the territories of Masisi and Rutshuru near Kitshanga, 70 kilometers (43 miles) from North Kivu’s provincial capital Goma. Rwanda denies supporting the rebels as claimed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
