MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th December, 2020) The military forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continue search operations for one of the army's helicopter, which has been missing since Tuesday, an army spokesman in the northeastern Ituri province, Jules Ngongo, told the Actualite.cd media outlet on Wednesday.
Two military helicopters were on their way to the Tshopo province in the north-central part of the country with army officers on board from the Ituri and North Kivu provinces. The delegations were conducting military operations.
"One of our two helicopters is missing, including crew members, although it took off here at Bunia�[capital city of Ituri province] airport. It was near Niania [a village in Ituri province] that we realized this situation. But we have already launched the ground search operations," Ngongo said, as cited by the news outlet.
Notably, the Allied Democratic Forces group, deemed a terrorist organization by Uganda, has operated in the North Kivu province since the 1990s, while the Ituri region has been subjected to decades-long armed conflict between two local ethnic communities, namely, Lendu and Hema.
