United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)
4 September 2008
Kinshasa — An Air Serv International plane crashed Monday afternoon as it started its descent towards Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu in eastern DRC. The fifteen passengers and two pilots on board were killed instantly.
Mr. Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in the DRC, in the name of the whole United Nations family in the DRC, is deeply saddened by this tragic air crash in which humanitarian and development workers lost their lives while working to ease the suffering of the Congolese population and to support the rebuilding of the country.
In these difficult circumstances, Mr. Doss wishes to express his sincere condolences to the families of all the people on board. His thoughts also go to the affected UN agencies and NGOs.
The plane, chartered for the transport of humanitarian workers by Air Serv International, was on a scheduled flight from Kinshasa to Kisangani, Bukavu and Goma.
When informed of the news on Tuesday morning, Mr. Doss dispatched his deputy Mr. Ross Mountain, who is resident UN humanitarian coordinator and Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the DRC to Bukavu, in order to support aid operations and the humanitarian community.
Search and rescue operations launched Tuesday morning made it possible to locate the site of the accident, some 16 kilometers northwest of Bukavu airport. The teams engaged in this operation redoubled their efforts to reach the accident site despite unfavourable weather conditions.
On the plane were seven United Nations personnel, four international NGO employees, four Congolese parliamentary administration members and the two pilots.
Among the seven United Nations personnel, there were two members from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) which was returning to Goma at the end of a mission to Kinshasa.
The five others belong to the UNDP and went to Bukavu and Goma for a mission of reinforcement of the capacities of the provincial authorities, within the framework of the programme of good governance. This mission was accompanied by four members of the administration of the National Assembly and the Senate.
Three workers of the NGO Handicap International Belgium had embarked in Kisangani and were to take part in a workshop on the fight aginst anti personnel mines in Goma. An employee of MSF-Holland, coming from Brazzaville, was traveling to Goma from Kinshasa on a work visit.
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