"The plane was carrying 14 passengers and three crew. There are no survivors," UN spokeswoman for the DRC’s peacekeeping mission Sylvie van den Wildenberg said.
The plane, an Antonov 28 of the local company Air Traset, crashed about 30km north of Bukavu, capital of Sud Kivu Province, as it was about to land at the city's airport, she said.
Quoting the head of the airport who had gone to the scene of the crash, the spokeswoman said the twin-engined turboprop had been burned out.
State governor Deogratias Buhambahamba said the plane had a Russian crew and had flown from the mining town of Lugushwa, some 130km south of Bukavu in the Mwenga region.
"Thirteen bodies have been recovered," he said, adding: "It is difficult to approach the wreck, which is still smoking".
First reports received by the United Nations mission known as MONUC said the plane appeared to have hit a mountain as it was lining up with the runway.
The weather was stormy in both Mwenga and Bukavu, and MONUC was obliged to cancel several of its own flights to Mwenga.
Air crashes are frequent in the DRC, where more than 50 private companies operate mainly elderly aircraft of Soviet construction which are badly maintained and often lack licences.
The country accounted for half the airlines on a blacklist issued by the European Union last March banning them from entering EU airspace on safety grounds.
The An-28 is relatively modern, first flying in 1969. Most of the aircraft produced have been built in Poland.