The Rwandan Government spokeswoman issued a statement saying that on Wednesday, a Sukhoi-25 (fighter-bomber) violated for the third time the airspace over the district of Ruvabu; we took defensive measures.

Rwanda demands the DRC to stop this aggression’.

A few hours later, the DRC Ministry of Communication denied that the plane had flown through Rwandan airspace and ‘condemned the attack on the aircraft by the Rwandan Army, a deliberate act of aggression amounting to an action of war’.

The two previous violations to which Rwanda refers occurred last November and December, according to that country’s version, which the DRC denies.

The two States are at loggerheads over Kinshasa’s accusations that the Rwandan army allegedly supported the March 23 Movement, composed mostly of ethnic Tutsis, in control of parts of eastern DRC.

In response, Kigali claims that the DRC supports the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, made up of members of the Hutu tribe, perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, when between 500,000 and one million Tutsis were killed.

jg/abo/mem/msl