Six rangers were killed in Virunga National Park in the latest attack in the east of Congo. Authorities blamed the killings on the Mai-Mai militia group, news reports said Monday.
The killers ambushed the rangers while they were patrolling on foot in the park, authorities said Sunday.
"We confirm that a group of armed men attacked our positions...We have dead and wounded among our ranger colleagues," Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature representative Olivier Mukisya told The Associated Press.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities blamed the Mai-Mai (Swahili for water) militia - one of dozens of armed groups fighting for control of Congo's mineral-rich eastern borderlands.
Several groups operate in the east of the country - many are remnants of armed organizations that fought in civil wars that resulted in millions of deaths from conflicts, disease and starvation.
Park personnel are often attacked. An ambush near Virunga claimed the lives of 12 rangers and five civilians and critically wounded many others in April.
A park statement said initial investigations suggested the rangers "were taken by surprise" and were unable to fight back. Alphonse Kambale, a local government representative, told Agence France-Presse that two Mai-Mai gunmen were killed.
More than 200 rangers have been killed since Virunga was declared a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site in 1925. It is Africa's oldest nature reserve and home to some of the world's last mountain gorillas. It is also the continent's biggest tropical rainforest reserve with an area of 7,800 square kilometers.
