In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new wave of drone strikes has hit both rebel and government-controlled areas.
Sunday evening, around 5:30 p.m., multiple explosions hit Bangboka airport in Kisangani, in Tshopo province. Local authorities reported nine explosions between Sunday evening and early Monday morning.
Two flights have been canceled, no casualties have been reported so far and the extent of the material damage is still being assessed. This is the fourth time that this airport has been targeted. Authorities suspect drone strikes and say an investigation is underway.
These attacks come against a backdrop of ongoing fighting in the east of the country. The AFC/M23 movement accuses government forces of carrying out drone strikes on its positions in North Kivu – including Rumangabo, home to the headquarters of Virunga National Park, the Rubaya mining area in Masisi and parts of Minembwe. The group says buildings were hit and civilians killed.
Neither side has officially claimed responsibility for these latest strikes, but both commercial accusations, as well as the ceasefire agreed in April in Switzerland, continue to be repeatedly violated. On Friday, the international contact group for the Great Lakes region – comprising Belgium, France, the United States and the European Union – condemned the increasing use of drones by various actors and the growing number of civilian casualties in eastern Congo.
The region has been plagued by violence for more than 30 years, but fighting intensified in early 2025 when Rwandan-backed M23 fighters seized the key towns of Goma and Bukavu, overwhelming Congolese forces.
Drones have become increasingly common in recent months.
The Congolese forces, long overwhelmed on the ground, equipped themselves with Turkish and Chinese attack drones to strike the M23 positions in the east.
But the anti-government group M23 also uses drones.
Its fighters have targeted sites, including Kisangani airport, in the northeast of the country, from where planes used by the government take off.
The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, has condemned a “wave of deadly attacks targeting civilians” in eastern DRC, including the Mushaki attack.
The United States also denounced the attack, without naming those responsible.
The M23 has frequently accused the army of carrying out deadly strikes against civilians.
UN experts have identified the M23 itself as one of the main perpetrators of human rights violations in the region, where dissent is strictly repressed in areas under the armed group's control.
In March, the M23 announced the death of one of its spokespersons, Willy Ngoma, in a drone strike near the Rubaya mine, in the North Kivu province.
A French UNICEF aid worker was also killed in early March in a drone strike in the city of Goma.
