By Enyichukwu Enemanna
For the second time within a period of six months, a United Nations helicopter on Friday crashed while flying over the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.
The UN Humanitarian Air Service chopper, managed by the WFP, went down near the city of Goma on Friday morning.
There were no passengers on board. However, three crew members were injured, the aid agency in an emailed response told Reuters news agency.
WFP said the cause of the crash was not yet clear even as more details were not provided.
In March, no fewer than eight peacekeepers were killed when a UN helicopter crashed in the area of Tshanzu, in North Kivu.
The helicopter was on a reconnaissance mission when it went down amid clashes between the Congolese army and a rebel group known as the M23.
DRC’s army at the time said the helicopter was shot down by the M23 rebel group, an accusation it denied.
The UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO did not state the cause of the crash and said investigations were under way.
