Jakarta (ANTARA News) - There were no Indonesian soldiers among the 32 dead victims of the UN plane crash that happened in Congo on Monday (April 4), an Indonesian National Defense Forces (TNI) Headquarter spokesman said.

Rear Admiral Iskandar Muda, the TNI Spokesman, said the TNI headquarters had checked with the Garuda Contingent in the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo whether any Indonesian serviceman was among the plane crash victims.

"So far, there has been no report on the death of any Indonesian solider in the plane crash," he said.

However, he added, the TNI would keep monitoring developments following the plane crash at Kinsasha airport , Comgo.

The UN had confirmed that in the plane crash 33 of the 33 people who had been on board the plane were killed.

"We can now state that only one out of 33 people on the MONUSCO plane that fell survived," Farhan Haq, the vice spokesman of the UN Secretary General, said at the UN Headquarter in New York om Monday (April 4).

MONUSCO is the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There was no immediate information on the names of the passengers inside the plane.

The UN media center reported that the plane fell and crashed while attempting to land in Kinsasha airport in heavy rain.

According to a release from MONUSCO, the ill-fated plane flew from Kisangani, northeast of Congo, to Kinsasha.

The plane was in the Democratic Republic of Congo to carry out a mandate from the UN Security Council since 1999 by sending peacekeeper staff in ending the civil war in the country.

There are around 22,000 U.N. staff and peacekeepers in Congo, of which 19,000 are military personnel belonging to MONUSCO, including Indonesia. The mission will be end on June 30.

There are about 200 Indonesian army forces in the mission troops, which is named Garuda XX-H/Monusco Contingent.(*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
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