OWN CORRESPONDENT Kisangani | Sunday 9.00pm.
THE wreck of an airliner shot down at the weekend by Democratic Republic of Congo rebels has been found about 40km west of the eastern city of Kindu, a Congo Airlines official said on Sunday.
“Villagers who found the wreck in the forest found no trace of survivors,” the official said.
The rebels claimed the aircraft was shot while landing with 40 soldiers aboard; the government and CAL claimed the 40 were civilian passengers fleeing the fighting in Kindu, and that the plane was taking off.
Kindu, the eastern base of Congolses government forces (FAC), is under attack by the rebels.
“The plane’s black boxes will establish whether it was shot down on takeoff or landing,” the airline official said.
The rebels said on Saturday that they had used SAM-7 missile batteries around Kindu airport to prevent the FAC from receiving reinforcements aboard civilian planes. Although the airport remains in government hands, the shooting is likely to put a stop to further activity there. Until now it has been used to land troops and supplies for government forces fighting the rebels in eastern DRC.
Meanwhile the rebels have broken through government defence lines in the week-long battle for Kindu, independent sources report. Fighting in the town reportedly died down after after the rebels fired a barrage of artillery into the government-held barracks and the air base, four kilometers away.
Rebel commander Fino Kabangu Kalunga said government forces, surrounded by 3,500 rebel troops from three directions, failed to respond to Sunday’s attacks. Some troops reportedly retreated through a single road corridor leading out of the town.
The rebels say they now control one-third of Kindu and are poised to overrun the rest of the town, with reinforcements arriving from the east by way of the strategic Eila River bridge.
Kinshasa has made no immediate comment on the situation, except to say that it, and not the rebels, controls the Eila bridge. However witnesses have reported seeing rebel troops crossing the bridge on foot.