Drone attack targets DRC's strategic Kisangani airport

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KISANGANI — Security forces have rebuffed a drone attack on a strategic airport in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the second such attack in a month, regional authorities said on Monday.

They blamed the attack on the international airport in the city of Kisangani on the anti-government M23 armed group, which is backed by neighbouring Rwanda and claimed responsibility for targeting the same airport at the start of February.

The government of Tshopo province said the M23 attacked Kisangani Bangboka airport on Sunday using four "kamikaze drones loaded with submunitions" which were "intercepted and shot down".

It said there were no casualties.

Bangboka is used both by civilian aircraft and by military planes.

The Congolese army uses its runway to launch attack drones and fighter planes against M23 and the Rwandan army positions in the DRC.

The drone attack came at four intervals, starting in the mid-afternoon. The last targeted the airport just as a civilian plane belonging to the Compagnie Africaine d'Aviation (CAA) was preparing its landing approach, the provincial authorities said.

The M23 reappeared at the end of 2021 and has since seized vast areas of the mineral-rich eastern DRC.

Bangboka was the subject of a drone attack between January 31 and February 1, claimed by the M23, which said it had destroyed the airport’s military drone command centre.

The warring parties in the eastern DRC regularly accuse each other of using drones for attacks in densely populated areas.

On Saturday, the M23 said a Congolese army drone had killed its military spokesman.