Today Reuters reported that in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo unidentified gunmen killed six elite presidential guard soldiers, military and local sources told Reuters.

Reuters spoke to a military source, who remains anonymous, and reported that members of the Republican Guard, who are responsible for protecting the president and other high profile posts, were going to collect rations, when they were ambushed. Their Jeep came under attack by men with heavy arms, firing at them on the main road, about 40 kilometres north of the North Kivu capital of Goma.

The source said “the elements of the Republican Guard fell into an ambush that killed six, and the assailants burned the jeep.”

“We have immediately opened an investigation,” he continued.

A spokesman for a civil society in Rutshuru, Innocent Gasigwa, told Reuters that the gunmen had killed six soldiers, wounded three others and taken another hostage.