Airport blasts must not affect disengagement - Annan

The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday expressed the hope that Friday's tragic series of explosions at Kinshasa airport, in which the provisional death toll has topped 100, would not affect implementation of the disengagement plan adopted in Kampala on 8 April by the Political Committee of the parties to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. Annan conveyed his condolences to the Congolese Government and people, as well as to the
families of those who died during the incident at N'Djili airport, and wished that the parties to the DRC conflict could build on the new ceasefire that came into place on Friday. "The UN remains committed to the earliest implementation of this Agreement, as well as to the provision of humanitarian assistance to the people of the DRC," his spokesman Fred
Eckhard said in a statement. A team from the UN mission in the DRC (MONUC) was sent to the airport on Monday to assess the state of UN aircraft and equipment, while a government inquiry into the cause of the incident was underway, the statement added.