Three Red Cross staff members have been kidnapped in Eastern Congo in an attacked blamed on Rwandan rebels by rights group.
The Red Cross’s director of operations Dominic Stillhart confirmed the abductions in a tweet, saying the organization is working on bringing them back safely.
“We’re doing everything we can to bring them back home safely,” he said.
The Congo-based Centre of Studies for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights said the three were drivers from Goma in the east of the country.
The rebels abandoned the drivers’ vehicles at the site of the abductions, the group said.
It also said the culprits are believed to be members of the Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which consists of former soldiers and Hutu militiamen behind Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
The rebel group, which has waged wars against other armed groups and the government, is thought to be at the heart of instability in the region. Members say they want to return to Rwanda but the U.N. peacekeeping mission has said the group’s goal is to overthrow the Rwandan government.
