Officials at the United Nations Mission for Stabilisation of Congo (MONUSCO) have expressed support for the people of the country following a fatal plane crash on Friday.

A Boeing 727 operated by Congo-based Hewa Bora Airways crashed just hundreds of feet short of Kisangani Airport in the north east of the central African country.

Some 112 people are believed to have been on board Hewa Bora Airways Flight 952 when it came down, with as many as 70 feared to have died.

“The United Nations expresses its condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives and it promises to offer any possible support to the Congolese authorities,” a MONUSCO statement read.

“The UN which recently suffered a similar fate when a MONUSCO plane crashed, understands well the logistical and psychological needs linked to a catastrophe of this nature,” added the special representative of the UN secretary general to DR Congo, Roger Meece.

The Bangladeshi and Belgian contingents of MONUSCO have been offering emergency medical assistance to the victims and helped in the evacuation of the injured people to the town’s hospitals since the crash.

In the capital Kinshasa, the World Health Organisation (UNWHO) has been working with the Congolese Health Ministry to dispatch personnel and additional medical equipment to the affected zones.

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