The bodies of the two Italian men arrived at Ciampino Airport in Rome from Tuesday to Wednesday and were met by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Wednesday that the country had sent a team to the east of the DRC to investigate the incident.
“At the moment all the facts are not clear,” said Pioletti. “We are still investigating, we are dealing with an area with different armed groups, different ethnicities, so we cannot attribute this attack to any of these groups, it is too early.
“What we know for sure is that it wasn’t an execution, it was a shootout, the ambassador and the carabinière were each hit by two bullets,” added Pioletti after autopsies of the two men that were completed on Wednesday.
An armed group stopped the convoy and forced the passengers to disembark before any gunfire was thrown, the WFP said.
Iacovacci died after a bullet hit him near the heart while Attanasio was shot twice in the abdomen, Pioletti said. Attanasio died on the way to the hospital, which was 50 minutes away.
It is not yet clear whether the bullets that killed the Italians were fired by the attackers or by the government army defending them, Pioletti added.
According to the WFP, the route was on a road previously designated as safe to travel without a security team.
Rutshuru is just over two hours from Goma. The way out of the regional capital has been uncertain for years due to a variety of armed groups active in the area.
There is a large UN peacekeeping presence in the region and UN convoys require security clearance to travel outside of Goma.
Since the identity of the attackers is still unknown, the motive for the attack is uncertain. A political motive is not completely out of the question, Pioletti said, but he added that a kidnapping was more likely.
CNN’s David McKenzie, Nicola Ruotolo and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.