Aid workers killed in Congo
The ICRC have played an important role in eastern DR
Congo
Six workers for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been killed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the organisation says.
An ICRC spokesman said those killed had been on a field trip outside the town of Bunia.
Four of those killed were Congolese. The other two were expatriates - a Swiss nurse and a Colombian relief worker.
The ICRC is now considering whether to suspend its operations in the region.
The workers were killed on Thursday afternoon when they were driving in Red Cross marked vehicles on a road that was considered to be safe.
The exact cause of the deaths has not been determined but the ICRC is saying that it was definitely not an accident.
Conflict
The region around Bunia has been the scene of intense fighting between two rival ethnic groups in recent months.
The ICRC is believed to have received threats from one of the groups, the Hema, alleging bias in favour of their opponents, the Lendu.
However, regional security sources say there are many possible attackers as the area is extremely volatile following two-and-a-half years of civil war.
This was the worst attack on the ICRC since
1996 when six nurses were killed in Chechnya.
-- Anonymous, April 27, 2001