BRUSSELS. Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and Italian flags in Brussels flew at half-mast on Tuesday as a tribute to Luca Attanasio, the Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), who was killed in an attack in the African country.

Attanasio and two others in his entourage died in the attack during a humanitarian trip in a United Nations convoy in the east of DR Congo on Monday.

Carly Nzanzu, governor of North Kivu, a province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, said that the rebels stopped the convoy with bullets and ordered the passengers on board, including the ambassador, to get off the vehicle.

"According to the testimonies we have gathered from the survivors, the rebels wanted money from the ambassador. They took all the passengers to the bush. And a few minutes later they killed the Congolese driver and then the bodyguard of the ambassador on site," said the governor.

DR Congo authorities on Monday evening identified rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) movement as being responsible for the ambush.