The bodies of the two Italian men arrived at Rome Ciampino airport overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday and were reunited 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 not all the facts are clear,” Pioletti said. “We are still examining, we are dealing with an area where there are different armed groups, different ethnic groups, so we cannot attribute this attack to one of these groups, it is still too early.
“What we know for sure is that it was not an execution, it was a gun fight, the ambassador and the carrabiniere were hit by two bullets each,” Pioletti added after the autopsies of the two men carried out on Wednesday.
An armed group stopped the convoy and forced passengers to disembark before an exchange of gunfire, WFP said.
Iacovacci died after a bullet struck him in 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 still unclear whether the bullets that killed the Italians were fired by the attackers or by the government army that defended them, Pioletti added.
According to WFP, the route was by a road previously designated as safe to travel without safety equipment.
Rutshuru is just over a two-hour drive from Goma. The road leaving the regional capital has been unsafe for years with several armed groups operating in the area.
There is a strong United Nations peacekeeping presence in the region and United Nations convoys need security clearance to travel outside Goma.
With the identity of the attackers still unknown, the motive for the attack is uncertain. A political motive has not been ruled out altogether, Pioletti said, but added that a kidnapping was more likely.
CNN’s David McKenzie, Nicola Ruotolo and Ingrid Formanek contributed to this report.