A close aide to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila was killed and the country s finance minister seriously injured in a plane crash on Sunday in the east of the country, the president s office said.
The statement identified Kabila s aide as Augustin Katumba Mwanke, 48, considered a key member of Kabila s entourage, who had the ear of the president.
Finance Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo was in a serious condition, while Sud-Kivu governor Marcellin Tshisambo had suffered fractures in both legs, said an airport official.
The plane overshot the runway at Bukavu airport, the president s office said.
"There were three killed: two American crew members and one passenger," Mwanke, a Bukavu airport official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that there had been eight passengers on the aircraft.
Mwanke and the pilot "died on the spot," a source at the presidency said.
The twin-engine Gulfstream 200 had flown in from the capital Kinshasa via Goma and apparently missed its landing at Bukavu airport, in the vast country s east.
"It touched down only halfway down the runway and went skidding into a ditch beyond the runway. The plane is damaged," the airport official said.
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