Gunmen kill aid worker in Congo ambush

(CNN) -- Gunmen killed an aid worker in war-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in an ambush Monday, according to his employer, an Italian non-government organization.

Boduin Ntamenya, 52, a staffer with the Voluntary Association for International Service, was killed just outside Rutshuru -- a volatile region about 80 kilometers, or 50 miles north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

His driver, Ciza Deo Gratias, 57, was wounded, the group said.

The U.N. consultative refugee agency AVSI -- which called the killing "cold-blooded" -- began its humanitarian activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and is working with children at its new displaced persons camp west of Goma.

Eastern Congo has been riddled by conflict warfare between rebels and government forces, since the summer, displacing 250,000 people and claiming the lives of many others.

That conflict has its origins in the Rwandan civil conflict of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were killed in ethnic battles between minority Tutsi and majority Hutu

Boduin Ntamenya, 52, a staffer with the Voluntary Association for International Service, was killed just outside Rutshuru -- a volatile region about 80 kilometers, or 50 miles north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Ntamenya, originally from Goma was part of a training group that supports and helps the teachers and students that work and study in conflict zones.

He and Deo Gratias were working to carry out a census of schools that had opened after the recent fighting between government forces and rebels.

Their four-wheel-drive vehicle was attacked by four armed bandits, AVSI said.

Hit on the hand and stomach, Deo Gratias drove for more than a kilometer until the damaged vehicle broke down. Doctors Without Borders personnel operated on him and he is fighting for his life.

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