Rwandan Hutu rebels have denied accusations they were behind the killing of the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and instead blamed the armies of the DRC and Rwanda, as further details emerged about the attack.

Luca Attanasio, 43, died after a World Food Programme (WFP) convoy was ambushed in a dangerous part of eastern DRC.

The envoy’s Italian bodyguard, Vittorio Iacovacci, and a Congolese driver who has not been identified also died on the field trip.

The DRC’s interior ministry blamed the killings on “members of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)” — a Rwandan Hutu rebel group that has plagued the region for more than a quarter of a century.

The group however denied the accusations. “The FDLR declare that they are in no way involved in the attack,” the rebel group said in a statement, condemning what it called a “cowardly assassination”.

The FDLR instead blamed the Rwandan army and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) for the attack in a statement received by AFP Tuesday

It said the ambassador’s convoy was attacked near the Rwandan border, “not far from the position of the FARDC”.

“The responsibility for this despicable killing is to be found in the ranks of these two armies and their sponsors who have forged an unnatural alliance to perpetuate the pillaging of eastern DRC,” it said.

The FDLR called on Kinshasa and UN peacekeeping force MONUSCO to “shed light” on the killings “instead of resorting to hasty accusations”.

The DRC and Rwanda authorities have not reported the presence of any regular Rwandan troops in the DRC.

The FDLR was founded by senior Rwandan officers and militiamen who the UN and others have said helped orchestrate the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. It is one of around 120 armed groups operating in eastern Congo.

The group kidnapped two British tourists in the same village in May 2018 and held them for several days before freeing them.

The surrounding Virunga National Park, which lies along the DRC’s borders with Rwanda and Uganda and is home to more than half the world’s mountain gorillas, then closed for nine months.

Meanwhile Italy on Tuesday began repatriating the bodies of the Italian victims of the attack.

In the eastern city of Goma, a UN van transported Attanasio and Iacovacci bodies to the airport, where an Italian cargo plane had landed early in the afternoon to fly the bodies to Rome.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi had dispatched his top diplomatic adviser to Goma to support an investigation by local authorities, the presidency said Tuesday.

Monday’s attack occurred north of the North Kivu capital of Goma on National Highway 2, a road that runs through thickly forested, mountainous terrain near the porous border with Rwanda.

The world-renowned Virunga National Park, a UNESCO-listed wildlife reserve, straddles the area.