A military cargo plane crashed in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa on Saturday, killing its 12 crew members, the defence minister said.

"I confirm that a military aircraft crashed this morning," said Defence Minister Crispin Atama Tabe. "All 12 members of the crew died."

The Antonov transport plane had just taken off and had "several dozen people" on board, an airport source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The plane went down in Nsele, about 100 kilometres to the east of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the source said.