A plane has been shot down near minembwe!

 A plane has been shot down near Minembwe in South Kivu

 A plane operating the link between Kavumu north of Bukavu and Minembwe was shot down by an unidentified missile, when it was less than 40 kilometers from Minembwe airport, in the high plateaus of Fizi territory in SouthKivu.

> This incident comes in a context of heightened security tensions.

> For several weeks, local civil society actors have been warning about suspicious air rotations in this zone controlled by the rebel coalition Twirwaneho and Red Tabara, allied to M23 ,claimed to be supported by Rwanda.

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> According to confidant sources based in Bukavu, the rebels had relied on two Antonov-type aircraft recovered on the ground in Bukavu to ensure the transport of troops, weapons and military equipment to Minembwe.

> At this stage, no official communication has been issued by the Armed Forces of the DR Congo nor by the rebel groups concerned.

 The exact toll and precise circumstances of the attack remain to be confirmed.

This matches reports from local sites  today *27 August 2026* - an aircraft on the Kavumu-Minembwe route reportedly hit by a missile less than 40km from Minembwe, in an area where civil society had flagged suspicious flights in a zone controlled by Twirwaneho / Red-Tabara allied to M23/AFC. 

At this stage FARDC and the rebel groups have not issued official statements, and the toll is still to be confirmed.