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Get you up to speed: Plane crash in DR Congo kills more than a dozen
A Congolese army plane crashed into a residential area in Kenge, Kwango province, killing at least 14 people, including senior military officials. The plane was en route from Kikwit to Kinshasa when it developed a technical fault and attempted to land without a strip, leading to the fatalities as confirmed by Major-General Efomi Ekenge.
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the crash, as aircraft operations remain suspended pending findings. In addition to the military officials, at least two civilians were among those confirmed dead in the incident.
An investigation has been initiated to ascertain the cause of the plane crash that claimed 14 lives, including senior military officials, according to Major-General Efomi Ekenge. The deputy governor of Kwango, Remy Saki Bokinda, highlighted the lack of a landing strip in Kenge as a significant factor in the disaster, which underscores ongoing challenges in the region.
What remains unclear — The exact cause of the plane’s technical fault that led to the crash has not been disclosed.
Plane crash in Democratic Republic of the Congo claims 14 lives
News|AviationPlane crash in DR Congo kills more than a dozen
Civilians and senior military officials among 14 dead after an army plane crashes into a residential area in the DRC.
Published On 26 Sep 202626 Sep 2026
At least 14 people, including senior military officials, were killed on Friday when a Congolese army plane crashed in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The plane was travelling to the capital, Kinshasa, from the southwestern city of Kikwit on Friday when it developed a technical fault and attempted to land in Kenge, in Kwango province.
Remy Saki Bokinda, deputy governor of Kwango, said: “With no landing strip available in Kenge, the plane crashed into a residential plot.”
Congolese military spokesperson Major-General Efomi Ekenge said 14 people had died in the crash.
“All those on board died; 12 were burned beyond recognition, while the pilot’s lifeless body was found outside the aircraft,” he said.
According to the military, among those killed were civilians and members of an official delegation travelling with the two generals, along with other military personnel.
Bokinda also said most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition and the pilot was found dead outside the wreckage.
An investigation has been opened to determine the cause of the accident, Ekenge said.
The DRC, a vast, mineral-rich country in central Africa, has endured decades of conflict, particularly along its eastern border with Rwanda, where several armed groups compete for control of lucrative mining areas.
The Congolese military has been battling a number of rebel groups that have claimed key cities in the country since last year.
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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