Rwanda has fired on a military aircraft from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) that it said entered its airspace in a new escalation of tensions between the neighbors that has set off alarm across central Africa.

A Rwandan government statement said “defensive measures” were taken against a Sukhoi-25 from the DR Congo on Tuesday evening, and it urged Kinshasa to “stop this aggression.”

Rwanda’s state broadcaster shared unverified video of what appeared to be a projectile fired at an aircraft.

The Congolese government in a statement said that the Rwandan attack on its fighter plane occurred in Congolese airspace near Goma International Airport and that the plane had not entered Rwandan airspace.

It said that the plane landed without major damage.

The DR Congo considers this “a deliberate act of aggression that equals an act of war” with the goal of sabotaging regional peace efforts, it said.

The incident occurred a week before Pope Francis arrives in the DR Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for a three-day visit to highlight the toll that decades of conflict have taken on the country, particularly in eastern DR Congo, a volatile region rich in minerals critical to much of the world’s technology.

The DR Congo for…