A close aide to DR Congo President Joseph Kabila was killed in a plane crash on Sunday in the east of the country in which the finance minister was injured, the president's office said.

The pilot was also killed, while the governor of Sud-Kivu province was also injured when the plane overshot the runway at Bukavu airport, the office said, identifying Kabila's aide as Augustin Katumba Mwanke.

Mwanke and the pilot "died on the spot," a source at the presidency said.

An airport source in Bukavu said the co-pilot may also have died in the crash, adding that Antoine Ghonda, a lawmaker who previously served as a roving ambassador for Kabila, was also among the injured.

Finance Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo, Sud-Kivu Governor Marcelin Tshisambo and Ghonda were taken to hospital, the airport source said.

Plane crashes are frequent in the DR Congo. Some 50 airlines operate in the vast central African country, all of which are on a European Union blacklist barring them from operating in the EU.