An Antonov plane crashed north of Brazzaville in the Congo Republic killing all 13 people on board, witnesses said on Saturday, in the second accident in less than a week involving the Russian-made aircraft.

The Antonov 26 was flying a route in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo from the northwest region of Equateur to the capital Kinshasa when it came down just across the border late on Friday.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. The flight was operated by Democratic Republic of Congo's Air Kasai.

"Around dusk... I saw the plane lose altitude and crash into the plain. It disintegrated into pieces... Bodies were strewn for a hundred metres (yards)," Jean Foula, an unemployed man who was buying food in the area said.

"It was only a few kilometres from Brazzaville's Maya-Maya international airport," he added.

Four crew members were among the 13 dead.

A five-year civil war which ended in 2003 destroyed much of Congo's infrastructure. Planes, many of them decades old, are the principal means of covering the huge distances in a country the size of Western Europe.

On Monday, another Antonov crashed near the town of Isiro in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing all seven people on board. Officials cited bad weather as the cause of the accident.

It was only the latest in a series of air disasters. An Antonov plane crashed into a cliff in eastern Congo in May, killing 26 people. At least 350 people were killed when an Antonov cargo plane crashed into a crowded market in the capital Kinshasa in 1996.