CNN —
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Tuesday condemned Rwanda’s allegations that a Congolese warplane violated Rwandan airspace, claiming the plane was attacked by Rwandan forces in a “deliberate act of aggression amounting to an act of war.”
Rwanda’s government communications office published a expression on Twitter on Tuesday, which read: “Today at 17:03, a Sukhoi-25 from DR Congo violated Rwanda’s airspace for the third time. Countermeasures have been taken. Rwanda is asking the Democratic Republic of the Congo to stop this aggression.”
The Congolese government later issued a expression He denied Kigali’s version of events, claiming that the jet “was attacked as it began its landing on the runway at Goma International Airport”.
“The Rwandan fire was aimed at a Congolese aircraft flying within Congolese territory. It did not fly over Rwandan airspace. The plane landed without major property damage.”
It went on to say: “The government views this umpteenth attack by Rwanda as a premeditated act of aggression amounting to an act of war” with the “sole purpose of sabotaging ongoing efforts to restore peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a rebel uprising has broken relations between the two countries.
CNN cannot independently verify either version of the events.
A video circulated widely on Congolese social media showed a projectile firing at an airborne military plane before detonating in the air near the plane, which flew on. CNN could not immediately verify the video.
Rwanda has been accused by the Congolese government, the United Nations and Western allies of supporting the notorious armed rebel group M23 in its violent insurgency in eastern DRC, which Kigali denies.
Regional leaders negotiated an agreement in November that would see the Tutsi-led group withdraw from recently occupied positions by January 15 to end fighting that has displaced at least 450,000 people.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi said last week the rebels had not fully withdrawn from those areas.
In December, Rwanda said another fighter jet from Congo had briefly violated its airspace.
An unarmed Congolese warplane also briefly landed at a Rwandan airport in November while on a reconnaissance mission near the border, in what Congo says was an accident.