Rebels deny downed plane was carrying arms

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has denied that an aircraft, which had to make a forced landing near Fizi last week, was carrying weapons. RCD spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba said the aircraft was a light plane and not an Antonov. He said it was forced to land at Lulimba, south of Fizi, “in Mayi-Mayi territory”. Two Congolese nationals and a Ugandan on board were reportedly killed and the pilot - said to be a Bulgarian national - was taken hostage, according to the spokesman. “There was neither a Rwandan nor an RCD officer on board the aircraft,” he stated, adding that the plane had been on a flight from Maniema province to Bukavu in South Kivu province. The head of Congo’s military alliance, General Francois Olenga, however claimed that the Mayi-Mayi and government forces “captured a Rwandan military plane ferrying arms to eastern Congo”. He told the Associated Press (AP) that all the people on board had been taken into custody, denying that three of them had been killed.